Hunt for the Element Stones
by Aquila Aqua
Summary: Sequal to DTY. Thousands of years ago, ten element stones were created by the council of the Valorites and Vigilnites to restore the power of the Gem of Wishes should its power be drained. Can't put up full summary here so read it inside. Read and Review. PS. The pairings will be shown but will not go into it too much. Slow Updates
1. Prologue

**I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Authors note: Hunt for the Element Stones will take place six months after Different than You. In case you get disappointed by how the first chapter goes, I have to inform you that the first few chapters will not be on the search. But it'll eventually get there.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review!**

 **PS: It's short because it is a prologue.**

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 **Full Summary: _Sequal to Different that You. Thousands of years ago, ten element stones were created by the council of the Valorites and Vigilnites to restore the power of the Gem of Wishes should its power be drained. Now, Arata and his friends must start the search for the stones in order to restore the power of the Gem of Wishes and banish the Night Lurkers back to their dimension. But with a corrupted politician also looking for the stones, the search might be harder than they originally thought._**

* * *

 _1 April 2054, Entry from Houjou Muraku_

 _Six months, that's how long Arata and Reika left the island along with Maya, Nick and Wataru with the former two graduating from Fantasy and returned to LA. Wataru on the other hand stayed at Fantasy and I heard that he's making good progress in his studies._

 _Kamui Daimon Comprehensive Academy has also taken a change for the better. Thanks to the efforts of various supporters, it is now a full fledge school for LBX. The system has also changed such that the Second World has been converted into an arena for various LBX-related competitions. It's too long for me to describe the competitions here so I'll save that for a later entry. The classes has also changed such that there are no more virtual country division. Each class is a team of its own and divided further into sub-teams. Of course, all of us had stuck with our platoon arrangements since it was more convenient for us and we are fond of our teammates. Students who become LOST are no longer expelled but they have to spend their pocket money to buy a new LBX instead._

 _But Mia is still in a coma even until now. I don't know why, but the doctor said that it is natural because her brain is still recovering from being controlled by the slave collar for days. But she had healed from the gunshot from Seredy since. Given how she tried to fight back the collar, she mentally exhausted herself without knowing it. In fact, had Lara not shared her powers with her and we did not save her in time, she would have died._

 _I always visit her during the weekends with some of our classmates tagging along most of the time. I usually do not see Arata or Reika then since the former is busier during the weekends than he is in the weekdays but he tries to visit her on Mondays and Thursdays since he's free then. Reika's visits vary since she's been travelling a lot with Jin-san recently but she always sends cards weekly which Arata or I read to Mia._

 _Otou-san has been training me both in martial arts like Fantasy and my powers. He's changed a lot, I can tell. He's no longer the cold person who shunned Mia and by extension, me. Now, I'm stronger than I was before and he said that I am very close to Arata's level._

 _As for Lara, while she was not prosecuted, she was under watch by the government in case she turns back to the World Sabers, which I doubt. I heard that she's staying with a man name Yagami Eji but there has been no trouble from her so far. In fact, they are considering releasing her from watch soon. I'm starting to forgive her as she tried her best to help Mia even though she was the one who made her like this…_

* * *

Muraku looked up from writing as he felt a breeze from the window. He had been so engross in writing that he forgot to close the window of the hospital room that Mia was staying in. He put down his diary and went to close the window. As he did, a soft moan made him stop in his tracks. He jerked his head sharply at Mia. He looked at her closely and saw that her fingers were twitching while her eyelids were moving. In fact, the monitor beside the bed was showing an increase in brain activity.

Muraku gasped and quickly pressed the button beside the bed to call for the doctors. Soon enough, the doctors came in and the nurses made him wait outside while they checked on her. While waiting, Muraku could not contain his relief and collapsed on the seat.

He covered his mouth as he choked back a sob of relief. 'Mia's waking up…she's waking up…'

The doctor soon came out but had a grim expression which made all the relief Muraku had just now evaporate. He rushed over and grabbed the doctor's arm. "Sensei, how is my sister?"

"She's awake now. We'll have to continue to monitor her though for any signs of relapse and start her rehabilitation." The doctor said.

"Can I see her?" Muraku requested.

The doctor sighed at that and gestured for him to sit down at the seats with him. "I have to warn you about this. When we were examining her, we discovered that she has amnesia."

Muraku could not react to that for a moment he slowly said, "Amnesia?"

"I'm thinking that being shot and the damage done by the slave collar created some traumatic impact on her mind so as a natural defense against these memories, her brain has sealed all her memories away to protect her body from shock." The doctor explained.

"Is there any way to treat it?" Muraku asked apprehensively.

"I'm afraid that there is nothing much I can do." The doctor shook his head. "It all depends on her. But this may be my personal opinion, but I believe that it would be better for her to do her rehabilitation on Kamui Island while staying with you and your friends. That would be the best method to get her to regain her memories."

"I'll call my father." Muraku finally said. "He'll make the arrangements for the transfer."

"Alright." The doctor nodded. "You should go and see her."

"Thank you." Muraku swallowed thickly and went inside.

Mia's eyes instantly landed on him and frowned. "You are…?"

Muraku's heart sank but he mustered a weak smile and sat down next to her. "I'm your twin brother, Muraku. Mia, do you remember anything at all?"

Mia's face scrunched up in thought but all she could come up with was a blank. She shivered as she shook her head. Muraku saw this and closed the window which was still open. Mia observed him for a moment and felt a tug on her heart. While she could not understand it, she knew that she could trust Muraku because of it.

"Alright." Muraku sat down again. "Are you still cold?"

Mia slowly shook her head and Muraku smiled. "You have no idea how relief I am now that you are awake, even though you cannot remember me."

Mia frowned and looked around. "Where am I?"

"You are in the hospital." Muraku tried to keep his voice steady.

"Why?"

Muraku had to pause to maintain his composure and carefully thought of what to say. "You were shot and was injured. Also, you were controlled by a slave collar that made you do bad things for a bad guy. It made you extremely mentally exhausted that you were sent into a comatose state."

Mia's eyes became wide and flashes of what happened six months ago appeared in her mind. She gasped and her breathing became hoarse as she started to hyperventilate. Muraku's eyes became wide and he hugged her close. "Mia, it's alright! You're safe now. No one can hurt you now."

Mia calmed down at his words and her breathing slowly returned to normal. Muraku sighed in relief but he did not let her go yet, slowly smoothing her hair to comfort her.

"I'm scared." Mia whispered. "I-I can't remember anything."

"It's alright." Muraku reassured her. "I'm here. I'll help you regain your memories. So will our friends."

"Friends?" Mia said, sounding confuse.

"…I'll show them to you when you come out of the hospital." Muraku said, deciding that it would better for them to reintroduce themselves than for him to tell her about them for obvious reasons.

* * *

"Amnesia?" Arata frowned. Currently, he, Muraku and Haruki, the representative of Jenock, were having a three way chat on Skype regarding Mia.

"Yes." Muraku nodded. "The doctor thinks that it has to do with trauma but this is Mia we're talking about. I know that she would not easily give in to trauma."

"That's hard to say, Muraku." Haruki gently cut in. "I agree that Mia's strong but you have to think about if from Mia's point of view. She was already stressed mentally because of the slave collar and experienced shock from the gunshot. It's hard to tell if she would succumb to trauma or not."

"What do you think, Arata?" Muraku asked him.

"It's hard to tell." Arata shrugged. "Does she remember anything regarding her powers?"

"No." Muraku shook his head.

"Good. For the time being, don't tell her about them. She cannot use them if she doesn't remember that she has them."

"Why not?" Muraku frowned.

"Because if she knew, she still would not remember how to control them. Better for her to not know about her powers until she fully regains her memories than for her to lose control of them." Arata said seriously. Muraku unconsciously shivered when he remembered the last time that happened.

"Anyway, did the doctor say anything regarding her condition?" Haruki asked.

"He recommended that she comes back to the island with me next week if he can discharge her from the hospital then. She can do her rehab at the hospital there. What's important is that she is around her friends and family. The doctor believes that she can overcome the trauma and regain her memories that way." He turned to Arata's screen as he spoke next. "Arata, I know that you are very busy, but I was hoping that you and Reika would come back and stay for a few weeks. You don't have to come to school, but you can help Mia and support her like you always did."

"Consider it done." Arata immediately said. "Let me know when Mia is going back so that I can call Reika to come back in time. I'll inform Yuko-nee of this but I'm sure that she'll agree to it."

"Thank you." Muraku nodded gratefully.

"I'll inform the class about this so that they will know to not overwhelm her or you when you come back." Haruki promised.

"Thanks a lot." Muraku hung up and glanced at Mia who was now sleeping. He grasped her hand tightly and smiled grimly. "Don't worry Mia. We'll help you through this. You don't have to deal with this alone."


	2. Returning to Kamui Island

**I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review!**

* * *

"Of course you can go." Yuko said when Arata told her about Mia. "But in turn, I have a favor to ask."

"What is it?" Arata asked.

"I've tried deciphering the document Otou-san gave me but nothing I did worked." Yuko said in slight frustration. "It was only when I dug deeper than I found out that the text on the document is in fact a very old language which we forgot about. Therefore, I cannot decipher it."

"Then how are we going to decipher it?"

"Luckily, I found out that there is a Master who once studied this ancient language." Yuko said slowly. "Do you remember Kalina Black?"

"How could I not?" Arata said with a small smile. "Lina-senpai was the one who gave me my first LBX."

"Her father is the master who studied the ancient language. Unfortunately, he died three years ago but I heard that Kalina had continued her father's work." Yuko explained.

"Then you want me to find Lina-senpai and ask for her help." Arata guessed.

"That's right." Yuko nodded. "Thankfully, I kept in contact with her since she's taking an engineering programing course at her college at America so I try to help her out wherever needed. And I found out that she's planning to enter the Artemist tournament which will take place in Sydney in two weeks' time."

"And…?"

"I want you to participate in the tournament as well." Yuko simply said.

Arata's jaw dropped wide open at that. "What? But Yuko-nee, while I can use my LBX well, it doesn't mean that I can actually match up to a world class tournament like that!"

"It's alright, Arata." Yuko reassured him. "The main point about participating in the tournament is to find Kalina and convince her to join your team. She excelled in both her martial arts and power usage class so she'll be a big help to us in fighting the Night Lurkers and finding the Element Stones."

"I suppose…"

"Anyway, you can get Reika to join as well." Yuko added. "You don't have to worry about winning or losing. Just focus on contacting with Kalina and ask for her help."

"Alright." Arata nodded. "I'll call Reika and give her the updates."

"Please do." Yuko nodded. "And when you get to the island, you can stay with Master Houjou. I'll talk to him about it."

"Thank you, Yuko-nee." Arata bowed and left her office. Once he closed the door behind him, Yuko's face fell and she resumed her work before Arata came in. On her computer screen was the reports of Tougou Giichi after he had disappeared.

'Tougou Giichi, one of otou-san's promising students. But in the end, he placed his selfish desires over his duty to the school. I will not be surprise if he disappeared to find the Element Stones too. If so, then he must know of the legends too and will come after the Gem of Wishes again.' She thought to herself and pulled out the pen drive that she retrieved from Reina after the Kamui Island incident. Her friend had kept her promise and not peaked inside of it and she was thankful for that. Inside the pen drive was in fact more evidence against the former prime minister as well as the stats of his powers in case they were ever to cross paths.

"If we want to defeat Tougou Giichi, our best start is to analyze his strengths and weaknesses." She mused.

* * *

 _A week later_

Mia looked around in curiosity as she and Muraku waited for Arata and Reika to arrive at the docks so that they can head to the island.

"The island is over there." Muraku said, pointing it out to her. "That's where we go to school."

Mia stared at the island and frowned. "While it looks familiar, it doesn't feel very familiar at the same time."

"That's because you only studied there for a few months." Muraku explained. "You were homeschooled for an entire year before coming here."

"Oh." Mia's eyes became unfocused and she looked around. Muraku could tell that she's trying to remember something but couldn't. So far, she had been able to recall him, Wataru, Maya and their parents when he showed them their pictures but as for their friends and environment, he found out that it took her longer to remember them but he could say that it's a start.

"Muraku!" Arata called as he and Reika came over, or bounced in Reika's case. Their eyes became wide when they saw Mia but knew not to jump on her as to not startle her. Mia immediately became wary of them but Muraku placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"It's alright. They are our friends…well, actually, Arata is a brother figure to you while Reika is your best friend and the both of you are as close as sisters."

Mia looked at him in surprise and cocked her head at them. For some reason, a warm feeling of recognition surfaced in her heart and she stumbled slightly as she remembered them…or rather their names.

"Arata? Reika?"

Arata and Reika gasped and Muraku gripped her arm tightly to steady her.

"Mia, do you remember anything about them?" He asked her gently.

"I…" She trailed off as she clutched her head in pain.

"Mia!" Arata rushed over without thinking and gripped her shoulders. "Are you alright?"

Mia looked at him in surprise and much to her surprise, she was not startled by this…as though she was expecting this. "Why?"

Muraku and Arata looked surprise at that. "What do you mean?"

"Why do I know that you care a lot for me?" Mia said, her voice barely over a whisper.

Arata blinked at that and smiled softly. "You are like Reika to me. The both of you are equally important to me as my sisters. Of course I would care for you."

Mia observed him for a while and noted that he was not lying. She could tell in her heart that she could trust him. She then shifted her gaze to Reika, who up until now was quiet as she tried to wrap it around her mind that the person standing in front of them is her best friend but she barely remembers anything about them, and raised an eyebrow. "You and I were best friends?"

"Yup." Reika said with a grin. "We used to gossip about Arata and another best friend of ours' next prank and come up with new songs together."

"So you're a song writer?" Mia asked curiously.

"No, you are." Reika shook her head. "8 out of 10 times it's me who performs the song while you wrote and composed it. You said that other than piano recitals, you never want to perform your songs openly unless it is necessary like our music class' grade."

"That rings a bell somewhere." Mia muttered to herself.

"We can talk about it on the ship." Arata spoke up when he noticed that some of the workers were going to remove the gangplank if they didn't get moving.

Noticing this, Muraku and Arata promptly grabbed their respective sisters by the arms and pulled them up on to the ship just before the gangplank was removed and the ship began to move away from the docks.

"Glad we got on the ship on time." Arata sighed in relief as they walked towards the deck.

"Are you two studying on the island?" Mia asked them.

"Nope." Reika shook her head. "We're just there to observe. Arata and I will not be attending the school because we're just here to help you regain your memories so we'll only observe the changes of the school since we last been there."

Mia blinked in surprise but was touched by the gesture so she smiled and nodded. "Thank you."

Reika grinned back at her and pointed at the ocean. "Just look out there. It's not good to simply try to remember and tire yourself out. You got to relax every once in a while to clear your mind. It'll be easier to recall things like that."

Taking Reika's advice, Mia stared out at the ocean and found herself relaxing. Her mind slowly began to clear up from the muddle of memory flashes and the names of her family and friends whom she already recalled. It was difficult for her to imagine what her life was before she landed in the hospital. Muraku said that it was better for her to remember it than for anyone to tell her because it was not very pleasant in a sense where she was bitter at several things which Muraku dare not tell her.

"We're here." Muraku's voice broke through her thoughts and gestured at the island where the ship was coming in close. "Come on. Everyone said that they'll wait for us at the docks."

Mia nodded and followed him down the gangplank with Arata and Reika behind. Almost as soon as Muraku got down, he was jumped on by his friends.

"You're back!"

At the same time, Yuno launched herself onto Arata while Suzunne did the same with Reika. Mia was badly startled by all this that she jumped back but her foot slipped on the edge of the docks, causing her to lose her balance and would have fell into the sea had strong hands not grabbed hers and pulled her up.

"Mia, are you alright?" Daimen asked concernedly, gaining everyone's attention.

Mia gasped and ducked behind Muraku who then realized what happened.

"Mia, what happened?" He asked her worriedly while gesturing for his friends to give them some space.

"She tripped and would have fell into the sea." Daimen explained. "So I managed to catch her in time."

"I think she's overwhelmed by everyone of us." Arata said quietly as everyone else moved away.

Muraku sighed and gave him a small apologetic nod. "I'm going to take her to our father's place first. Can you…"

"Sure." Arata nodded. Once Muraku and Mia were gone he turned to Haruki and shook his hand with a grin, knowing how to diffuse the tension. "Six months and I can't believe how much the school has changed."

"It helps when the LBX makers all around the world pitch in to help." Haruki said with a small smile. "But I take it that you and Reika have no intention of joining though."

"Nope." Reika shook her head with a small grin. "Just watch from the sidelines."

"That's too bad." Yuno said with a mock sad look. "I was really looking forward to the both of you joining us for the competitions."

"Technically speaking, I'm still enrolled in Fantasy and I'm only here on an 'assignment'." Arata shrugged. "But that doesn't mean that I'm not curious as to what competitions you guys have so I'll probably watch one session if no one minds."

"It's open for visitors to observe." Hikaru told him.

"By the way, about Mia…"

"She's still struggling to stand on her feet." Arata told them. "But I think we may have scared her just now. But I'm sure that she'll be fine."

"Who would have thought that this would happen?" Vanessa muttered.

"But at least she doesn't remember Seredy controlling her and getting shot for now." Reika said with a sad smile.

"By the way, Arata, do you want to watch the tournament to decide who will represent the school for the Artemist?" Yuno changed the subject.

Arata raised an eyebrow at that and nodded. "Sure, why not? Oh, if I remember correctly, Hikaru, you were last year's winner, right?"

"That's right." Hikaru nodded in confirmation. "Which is why I'm not participating in the tournament. I already received the invite to participate."

Arata chuckled and swung his bag on his shoulder. "Well, we'll be with Muraku if you want to find us. You guys better head back to school if you want to get there in time."

"We'll see you at the tournament then. It's going to take place at the school's assembly hall." Haruki informed them and they headed back to the school before they were late for class.

"That went well." Reika remarked as she and Arata headed towards Master Houjou's house instead.

"It could be worse." Arata chuckled but became serious. "It'll take some time before Mia will fully recover. Until then, we have to help her wherever we can."

"I know." Reika nodded but smiled. "But at least we can stick by her side for the time being though."

"I agree. Mia clearly doesn't trust anyone other than Muraku and she's slowly opening up to us. We'll work on that first before going to the next step which will be our classmates." Arata decided. It may be a long shot for Mia to regain her memories, but with their help, they would definitely succeed.


	3. Character and OC profiles (Part 1)

**I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review!**

 **This is a long overdue profile of the characters and OCs in Hunt for the Element Stones. There will be more but I haven't finished them yet. But I'll post them here as well when I'm done with them.**

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Hunt for the Element Stones Character and OC profiles

 **Characters**

Name: Sena Arata

Age: 16 (DTY), 17 (Hunt for the Element Stones)

Casual Clothes: He wears a red jacket with Fantasy's logo on the shoulders over a white shirt and faded jeans. He also wears yellow sneakers.

Character: He is a very serious person at first glance and is mentioned more than once that he is more mature than others his age. But the reason why he is like this is because he was harden by his past. However, he is known to have a soft side around those who he trust and loves. But for people who messes with the people he cares for, he will show his sadistic side to them

Powers: Pryokineses (Manipulation of fire), telepathy, Empathy

Weapon: Fire Staff (A silver staff with a flame top, has a sword hidden in the staff with the top being the hilt

Aviane: Blaze

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Name: Houjou Muraku

Age: 16 (DTY), 17 (Hunt for the Element Stones)

Appearance (Original Form): His hair is shortened and remains more or less the same but the white accents are gone. His eyes become yellow and his sking is now black with grey tattoos swirling up his arms. He wears a black traditional robe.

Casual Clothes: He wears a long sleeve white shirt with a purple vest over it, dark pants and purple sneakers.

Character: He normally does not show much emotion but he cares deeply for his friends and family, especially Mia and Wataru

Power: Umbrakinesis (Manipulation of darkness), Mind control

Weapon: Shadow Sabers (Black Sabers with silver hilt and decorated with stars)

Aviane: Umbra

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Name: Kenbishi Wataru

Age: 15 (DTY), 16 (HFTES)

Casual Clothes: He wears a purple long sleeve hoodie shirt and cargo pants. He also wears black hiking boots.

Character: He is described to be hyperactive on more than one occasion but means well. But when needed, he can be serious

Power: Telepathy, Intangibility

Weapon: Mind Sword

Aviane: Staghorn

* * *

 **Main OC Characters**

Name: Kalina Black

Age: 21

Appearance: She has dark ginger hair which comes up to her shoulders and light brown eyes. There are scars along her arms from her days in Fantasy

Casual Clothes: She wears a light red zip up vest and dark jeans along with crimson flats

Character: She is mostly a reserved person who does not like to talk about herself. But she and Ban found a rivalry and common interest in building LBX which also lead to their rocky relationship. However, she can be very indecisive at times when it comes to food and is actually forgetful of her things

Power: Geokinesis, explosion inducement

Weapon: Earth Butterfly swords

Aviane: Boupher

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Name: Lara Lei Feng Yu

Age: 16 (WARS), 17 (HFTES)

Appearance: She has extremely dark brown hair that could be mistaken for black and is up to her mid-back and tied up in a half ponytail and light brown eyes

Casual Clothes: A light blue cardigan over a yellow blouse, and an A-line turquoise skirt that comes up to just above her knees. She also wears socks that comes up two thirds of her calf and yellow sneakers

Character: Because she was part of the World Sabers, she is a very cunning and occasionally shows signs of sadisms but underneath that is a kind girl who hates to see people suffer if it is unrightly inflicted.

Power: Photokinesis, telepathy, telekinesis

Weapon: Light Whip

Aviane: Illlumina

* * *

Name: Sena Reika

Age: 16 (WARS), 17 (HFTES)

Appearance: In HFTES, her hair is now longer (past her shoulder) and her bangs are pulled back by a rose hair clip given to her from Jin. She also wears light makeup on occasion.

Casual Clothes: IN HFTES, she now wears a light blue button-on sleeveless shirt with a dark blue jacket with Fantasy's logo on the shoulders instead and a white skirt with leggings and blue sandals.

Character: When meeting someone new, she acts shy but quickly gets over it. She is mischievous in nature and acts immature on more than one occasion.

Power: Hydrokinesis, Partial Teleportaion

Weapon: Aqua Tessens

Aviane: Aquila

* * *

Name: Houjou Mia

Age: 16 (WARS), 17 (HFTES)

Appearance: In HFTES, she cuts her hair shorter (Only past her shoulder by a few inches) and ties it into a high ponytail with her blue streaks being braided while her bangs are now full.

Casual Clothes: In HFTES she wears a black tank top and white shawl. She keeps her black line pants but switches out her platform boots for purple ballet shoes

Character: Because of her amnesia, she sees almost everyone as a stranger and does not trust them. But because of this, she grows closer to Muraku and her father

Power: Cyrokinesis, Telephathy, Illusion Manipulation, Telekinesis, Prerecognitive dreams

Aviane: Frost


	4. Battle Time

**I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review!**

* * *

When Arata and Reika reached Master Houjou's house, they saw that Muraku was in the living room with their father.

"Arata, Reika." The master greeted them.

"Master Houjou." They bowed.

"You two can put down your things in the rooms down here." Master Houjou told them.

"Where's Mia?" Arata asked while Reika brought their things to their rooms.

"She's resting. After what happened at the docks, she's feeling overwhelmed and her head hurts a lot more than before." Muraku said with a frown.

"I see." Arata sighed and sat down at the couch.

"How long will you and Reika be staying here?" Master Houjou asked him.

Arata frowned and shook his head. "Probably for a few weeks at most. We're just going to try and help Mia regain her memories. If not, then we'll try to help her be as comfortable among her friends as possible."

"That will take a little longer than we hope though." Reika remarked when she came in and sat down beside him.

"But even so, I trust that she'll recover well." Master Houjou said and stood up. "I'll leave you three to talk. I have some errands that I need to run."

"Of course." Arata and Reika inclined their heads while Muraku nodded.

"You're not going to school?" Arata asked his friend.

"Not until later." Muraku shook his head. "I got half the day off of school. But I have to be back by Battle Time. I don't think Mikhail and Vanessa would like it if I let them go out on their own again."

Arata let out a chuckle at that. "Then we'll be mere spectators then. Are you going to participate in the tournament to enter Artemist?"

"I haven't made up my mind yet." Muraku shook his head. "Hikaru already asked Haruki and Daimen to form a team with him so they'll be out of the tournament. While I would like to participate, I don't want to overwhelm everyone else."

"Oh come on. I bet you'll win the tournament, given your reputation." Reika joked.

"Maybe, but I still prefer not to." Muraku said with a slight smile. "You'll be participating Artemist though?"

"Yup." Arata sighed. "Yuko-nee signed us up already. She wants us to find somebody there for her."

Muraku raised an eyebrow. "Oh."

"By the way, since Master Houjou is training you, how far have you come, power level and black belt wise?" Reika asked.

Muraku paused to think and then reached under the coffee table to double check his most recent report by his father. "I've already passed my karate, tai chi and wushu black belt. And for power level, I've just reached Level 6 two weeks ago."

Arata let out a whistle at that. "Wow, and in just six months. I guess it means that you get to go through the Aviane trials soon."

"The Aviane trials?" Muraku frowned.

"Basically a test you have to go through since you've reached Level 6." Arata explained. "To put it simply, you get sent to the Aviane dimension and stay there until you befriend an Aviane."

"Will it be difficult?" Muraku wondered.

"Not so much if you can tell which Aviane you truly want to befriend." Reika told him with a shrug. "At least it's not the Master's trials. Once you turn Level 8, the highest level, you'll have to take the Master Trials in order to earn the title of Master. But it is optional on whether you want to take it or not. Having that title just gives you more recognition and benefits."

"Oh." Muraku raised an eyebrow.

"Trust us, you don't want to know what the trials are." Arata said with a slight smirk. "Many people prefer to stop at Level 7 and go on with their normal live without the title of Master like Yuko-nee."

Muraku let out a small chuckle at that and stood up. "Why don't you two stay here and take care of Mia? I have to go to my classes. But I'm sure that you two will show up to watch Battle Time."

"Of course." Arata nodded. When Muraku had left, Arata frowned and brought his hand to his face. "We have a dilemma."

"What's that?" Reika asked him concernedly.

"Earlier, I tried to probe Mia's mind to see if her powers are the ones interfering with her regaining her memories." Arata sighed.

"Let me guess, her mind is all shielded up." Reika guessed.

"That and there's some sort of barrier preventing her memories from resurfacing. Muraku is right. It's not trauma that made her loss her memories. It's her powers. But on the bright side, that mental shield is also preventing her from using her powers."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"It is a good thing such that she would not use her powers unconsciously. But the bad thing is that I don't know how to remove that barrier. But at some point, certain memories will slip through it with a strong provocation like this morning when she recognized us, or at least, our names." Arata sighed.

"Oh." Reika sighed as well.

* * *

 _Battle time is about to start. All students are to prepare themselves._

"Some things never change." Reika remarked when she and Arata arrived at the viewing rooms and took a seat.

 _Today's competition is the Attack the Flag competition._

"Now that's a change. I wonder what the competition is about." Arata remarked.

"I guess we'll find out soon." Reika shrugged.

Inside the control pods, Haruki was giving his class the briefing. "Given that today's competition is Attack the Flag, we have been assigned to attack class 3-5's flag. But we have to expect an attack from class 4-1. First, second and sixth teams will come with me to attack our opponent's flag while the fourth and fifth teams will remain here to guard our flag."

"Roger!"

In case the reader is wondering, there is no third team because that is Rikuya's team and no matter what anyone said, his platoon will always be the third team of class 5-5 which is why they never bother to move the fourth to sixth teams up.

The whole diorama which was once the Second World had changed in such a way that instead of world continents, the whole diorama was divided into several areas which each area's condition representing one type of D-Cube diorama terrain: jungle, city, volcano, snow, canyon, and mountain. And at certain areas, there was a miniature flags placed within the area of each class.

"Class 3-5's flag is located at the snow area." Haruki told his, the second and the sixth teams. "The second team will attack the flag while the sixth team backs them up. We'll take down the enemy LBX!"

"Roger!"

All the LBX dropped down at the said area and much to Arata and Reika's surprise, Daimen's LBX was no longer DC Offencer but Arata's former LBX, Dot Blastrizer. But what shocked them the most was how it was painted over with the Australian flag's colors and pattern.

"…Daimen is still the patriotic guy we're friends with." Reika said with a sweatdrop.

"…Yeah." Arata nodded in agreement.

Among the rest of Jenock, half of them retained their LBX used before the changes while others used other types. They noticed that Mikhail was now using Gunther Ylzephar while Vanessa was using a modified Phantom Blaze, colored purple like her other teammates' LBX.

"Did Murkau let her use it?" Reika wondered, voicing out her thoughts.

"I guess." Arata slowly nodded. After Mia was brought to the mainland, the ownership of Phantom Blaze was given to Muraku. So for him to give it to Vanessa to use was not surprising for them.

At the diorama, Daimen and Seiryuu were shooting at the flag while the sixth team was cutting down any LBX that dared to get close to them. Val Diver and Trivhine were fighting off the LBX which were trying to get over to the flag and reinforce their friends.

"Muraku, come over and helps us finish off the remaining LBX. Mikhail, Vanessa, continue to guard the second team!" Haruki ordered.

"Got it!" Muraku brought Magna Orthus over to Hikaru and Haruki's position where the remaining LBX had gathered.

"Hissatsu Function!" Hikaru, Muraku, and Haruki yelled.

 _Attack Function_

 _Catastrophe Drive_

 _Sword Storm_

 _Tri-Cannon_

The three hissatsu functions collided and sent all the LBX flying for their intention was not to destroy the LBX but to defeat them. Instantly, they broke over. Over with the second team, they managed to destroy the flag with extra help from Mikhail and Vanessa. The alarm sounded and the LBXs in the area were frozen and teleported back to their class's area where the fourth and fifth teams had fended off the attack from class 4-1.

"Just half an hour more until the alarm goes off. All units, fan out and secure the perimeter. If you see any enemy LBX, alert us immediately before engaging them."

"Roger!"

* * *

"That was interesting." Arata remarked by the time Battle Time ended with class 5-5 successfully defending their flag.

"And now on to the tournament." Reika grinned. "And hopefully it'll be just as interesting as Battle Time. As they headed over to the assembly hall where the tournament will be held, they met up with Muraku and Haruki discussing about something.

"…You should enter. I really think that this would be the best opportunity to…"

"Haruki, we talked about this before." Muraku cut in politely. "I have no desire to enter the tournament. If I do and win, it would mean that Mia will be alone on the island since Arata and Reika are participating as well."

"Are we interrupting something?" Arata politely interrupted.

"No." Muraku shook his head and turned to Haruki. "I'm not going to join the competition and that's final." He gave them a nod and walked off.

"What's with him?" Reika frowned, not understanding why Muraku was acting like this.

"He's been like this since Mia was put in the hospital." Haruki sighed. "Mikhail and Vanessa told me that it's because he blames himself for what happened to her."

"It's a good thing Mia's amnesiac or she'll throttle him for that." Arata shook his head. "I'll talk to him about it. How much longer until the deadline to register for the tournament?"

"One more hour." Haruki told him. "Good luck in getting through him. I have a feeling that he'll listen to you more than he would to me and the others."

* * *

It didn't take Arata long to find his friend on the roof and he smirked. "I knew that you'd be here."

Muraku cocked his head at him and frowned. "Did Haruki ask you to talk to me?"

"Nope." Arata shook his head. "But he did tell me that you were blaming yourself for what happened to Mia."

Muraku sighed and leaned on the fence. "You can't deny that it's true. I was supposed to protect her and she ended up like this because I trusted Lara too much."

"Hey, if you're going to blame yourself, then I should be no better than you." Arata folded his arms. "Remember, Mia is my sister just as she is yours. And I should not have left you two alone to find Lara that night. But I learned that it's better to let it come and go instead of blaming myself. You would not let me wallow in guilt when we thought that Seredy killed our friends with the so-called poisonous gas."

"How do you do it?" Muraku wondered. "How is it that you managed to pick yourself up every time something bad happens?"

"Experience." Arata said darkly. "I learned the hard way when I was young that in this world, you have to defile the bullies who push you down by standing up again after they push you down if you want to survive. Many people may think the opposite, but that's what I believe. For me and probably you, bullies don't only come in the form of physical people who love to torture you physically or mentally just to feel better. Bullies can also be our own emotions. Right now, your bully is the feeling of guilt."

Muraku stared at Arata in mild surprise. For him to think of things in this way was unorthodox as far as Muraku knew. But, he could relate to what he was saying. "So I should stand up to my feelings of guilt if I want to take down the bully. That's what you're saying?"

"Interpret it all you want." Arata shrugged. "But I can guarantee you this. When Mia regains all her memories or learns of this now, she'll never forgive you. We can tell how much you want to enter Artemist but you're sacrificing that dream for Mia. Do you think that she'll let you do so?"

"No." Muraku shook his head after contemplating it. "But is it worth entering the tournament and leave Mia alone on the island when we go for Artemist?"

"You could bring her along. She's been to Sydney before so it might help her recall something." Arata suggested. "Plus, this is a chance for her to hang out with our friends so that she can get used to them again."

"I suppose." Muraku tilted his head back to stare at the sky. "Alright, I'll enter the tournament and talk to my father about letting Mia come with us."

"Talking like you'll win it." Arata smirked.

Muraku rolled his eyes at that. "Trust me, you don't want to know how the competitors are. I'm not trying to say that they are terrible players but I'm sure that almost everyone would agree on it. Most of the talented and skillful players are staying out of this one since there's another major tournament that's more exciting than Artemist coming up…or so I was told."

"What could be more exciting than Artemist?" Arata wondered with a scratch of the back of his head.

"Some tournament in Akihabara City." Muraku shrugged. "Wonder why though since the prize is a supposedly new generation LBX."

"Probably the 'new generation' stuff." Arata said mildly. They shared a small smile before heading off the room to the assembly hall so that Muraku could register for the tournament.


	5. The Tournament

**I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review!**

 **Author's note: No, the tournament which Muraku mentioned in the previous chapter has nothing to do with the story.**

* * *

"So Muraku ended up being a last minute contestant." Reika remarked as she stretched on her seat. The assembly hall was packed as many students wanted to see who will be the one who will win the tournament and enter Artemist.

"All thanks to your brother." Vanessa said gratefully from her side. "We were honestly giving up on trying to get him out of his guilt. I think it hurt him a lot just to see Mia in coma and now…"

"I know." Reika sighed and leaned back against her seat. "I went through the same thing. Even until now, I still have nightmares of that night."

Vanessa flinched and it took Reika a while to remember that she and Mikhail too were controlled by the slave collars. She lowered her head and let out another sigh. "It's not easy dealing with it. How are you holding up?"

"I'm not sure." Vanessa admitted with a blank look in her eyes. "There are times I get nightmares from being defeated by Mikhail and then forced to wear the slave collar. Others is when we did not succeed and Seredy continued to use us as his pawns."

"Have you told anyone about your nightmares?" Reika asked her curiously with a hint of concern.

"Only with Mikhail, but I don't tell him about the first nightmare for obvious reasons." Vanessa shook her head tiredly. "Thanks for listening."

"Everyone needs to let it out every once in a while." Reika cracked a smile. "Hopefully all this will be forgotten by the time we reach twenty."

"I hope that it is so." Vanessa said somberly. Reika sighed and shifted her focus down on the arena which was set up in the center of the assembly hall. The tournament was a round robin tournament to make things fair so the one with the most wins will be selected to enter Artemist. But Reika had no doubt that Muraku would make it through the whole tournament. Based on her experience with Mia, if it was one thing the Houjou siblings were good at, it was striving to be the best, a fact proven by how far Muraku had come with his power and martial arts training in just six months.

The assembly hall went dark and the spotlights shone at the arena where all of the contestants of the tournament were lined up. The teacher in charge of the tournament went on stage with a mike and began the tournament. Soon, everyone went to their respective dioramas to start.

Muraku found himself going against Otohime. From what he remembered about Mia telling him, she was a fairly good battler but cares too much about her status than skills. And is definitely not someone who could beat him if she could not beat Reika. He let out a small smile as he remembered how he shook his head at that and told her not to put down others which she protested that she was only stating facts and she wasn't putting her down if she said that she is a fairly good battler.

"What's so funny?" Otohime raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

"Nothing." Muraku said, slipping back to his neutral face. "I hope that we will have a good battle."

Otohime snorted and posed tensely to get ready for the battle. While she initially was hoping that she would be able to show off to her crush, it was all futile because he didn't come. And to make things worse, rumors were going on that Reika and Arata were already participating in Artemist. If she wanted to show everyone that she was way better than Reika, she had to win in order to get into Artemist and beat her there.

"Begin!" The MC called.

"Magna Orthus!"

"Sirena!"

Reika's jaw dropped wide open and she clenched her fist. "I am so going to kill Takeru! When I said to Sirena to someone who can bring out its full potential, I did not mean Miss Ojou-sama!"

Vanessa winced at that and shifted her gaze nervously between Sirena and Muraku. While she knew that Muraku would have no problem defeating it, it was Reika's former LBX so she was torn between supporting Muraku and Reika.

But sensing how her friend was feeling, Reika shook her head. "I'm all up for cheering for Muraku. The sooner he defeats her, the sooner I don't have to see Sirena being controlled by Miss Ojou-sama!"

Vanessa let out a nervous laugh and nodded. "Alright. I'm sure that Muraku will defeat her in a matter of seconds."

As to prove her words, Magna Orthus dashed forward and with a slice of his sword, he defeated Sirena before it had the chance to defend itself.

"Winner, Houjou Muraku!" The MC declared. This earned a lot of cheers from the students. Muraku sighed in relief as he retrieved Magna Orthus. He lifted his head to the stands and caught Reika's eye, giving her a slight sheepish smile. But she replied it with a wave and a smile, showing that she's not mad at him for defeating her former LBX like that.

After all of the first round battles were done, the MC called for a break so Muraku went over to where his friends were along with Reika and Arata.

"That was priceless." Arata smirked at Reika as Muraku got near enough to hear them. "I can't believe that Takeru would give it to her though."

"I talked to Suzunne a while ago." Reika huffed and scowled. "I can't believe Takeru allowed himself to be persuaded into giving Sirena to her."

"Well…" Arata trailed off and shifted his gaze around the room until he saw Taker at one end of the room talking with Otohime. He contemplated on whether to tell Reika or not but decided not to as he didn't want to cause a scene at the moment.

"I hope you don't mind that I defeated Sirena, since it was your former LBX." Muraku spoke up, distracting Reika so Arata shifted his position to block Takeru from her view. Mikhail and Kageto frowned since Arata had shifted closer to them but when Arata beckoned at Takeru's direction, they nodded in understanding and shifted such that it would not look too suspicious.

"Not at all." Reika said firmly. "I would rather see you kick Miss Ojou-sama out of the tournament than to see her continue to make a pathetic show of Sirena."

"Had Sirena's owner be anyone else, she would probably be tempted to throttle you." Arata muttered to him.

"I suppose it's my luck it's not someone she likes then." Muraku whispered back mildly.

"Who's your opponent for the next round?" Vanessa asked him, changing the subject.

"Felicia from the next class." Muraku told her. "And then it will be Shiko from the grade below. The final rounds will be on then."

"That summons up that…" Reika trailed off and narrowed her eyes over Arata's shoulder. They blinked and followed her gaze. Arata turned slightly pale when he saw that she was fixing her gaze on Takeru.

"Cover your ears." He quickly hissed at them, bringing his hands up to his ears. Thanks to his warning, they managed to cover their ears just in time before Reika burst out.

"KOJOU TAKERU!"

Takeru, who was all the way at the other side of the assembly hall, jumped at his name called out and jerked his head around to find the source. He freaked out when he saw Reika storming towards him. Behind her, Arata was mouthing at him to run which is exactly what he did.

"Come back here!" Reika roared and followed him out, not caring the least that she was making a scene.

"I have the world's most immature sister." Arata lamented to himself, slapping his forehead in exasperation.

"It could be worse." Muraku remarked mildly, thinking back on Mia's own temper tantrums.

* * *

About half an hour later, the final rounds of the tournament came with Muraku winning all of his matches, placing him at the top of the ranks of the students who participated. His final opponent is a boy from class 6-1 and is one of the most ruthless battlers in the tournament.

"Violet Devil, I'll crush you and go to the Artemist!" The boy declared. "Then I'll defeat everyone there and win Artemist!"

"The arrogant type who thinks that they can get whatever they want through intimidation." Arata summoned up in a bored tone. "Really original." He added sarcastically.

"You got to admit though that he had the guts to try the intimidation angle even though he knew that it may not work." Daimen said in mock fascination.

As everyone expected, Muraku was barely fazed by his opponent's declaration. "We shall see."

"Battle start!"

"Magna Orthus!"

"Buld!"

"This will surely be quickly." Vanessa mused to her companions. "Gary is not the most clear headed person when it comes to LBX battles. And having a clear head is one of Muraku's strongest points."

Down in the arena, Muraku did not bother to make the first move, allowing Buld to attack first. It swung its hammer down, intending to crush it. But Muraku calmly had Magna Orthus sidestep in order to avoid it and then slammed its fist into the Buld's gut.

"Why you!" Gary yelled and tried to have Buld hit Magna Orthus with its hammer but Magna Orthus managed to dodge most of them, save for one or two. Under Muraku's careful eyes, Magna Orthus ducked under the hammer and stabbed the Buld with its sword. It flung the Buld to the edge of the diorama and it broke over.

"The winner is Houjou Muraku. Having the highest points of all the contestants of the tournament, he will be granted the right to enter Artemist!" The MC declared.

"He did it!" Vanessa cheered.

"Like we knew he would." Mikhail smiled softly and exchanged nods with Kageto.

Arata let out a small smile and whispered under his breath, "If Mia or Master Houjou were here, they would be proud of him." He glanced around and noticed that Reika and Takeru had not come back after the former had chased him all the way out of the school compound. He let out a small sigh and got up.

"I'm going to find Reika. Tell Muraku I told him congrats." He said to Daimen.

"Sure thing. Hope that she didn't kill him yet." He snickered.

"Nah, she won't. Hurt him, yes. But kill him, she won't. She's only reacting like this because she's jealous." Arata rolled his eyes.

Daimen laughed as he remembered what happened six months ago at the docks when Reika and Arata were leaving the island to go back to Fantasy. "I see. But aren't you going to stop her if she wants to get into a relationship with him?"

"She's old enough to make her own decisions." Arata merely said. Deep inside, he knew that Reika was already becoming independent from him ever since they started studying at the school. While he was not entirely bothered by it, he missed Reika's dependency on him. But he knew that she is growing up despite her tendency to act immature from time to time. He has come to accept that he is no longer her only anchor in her life and it was fine with him as long as Takeru will not treat her badly. He did not need to worry about Jin because he knew that Jin was just as protective of Reika as he was if not more.

* * *

"Reika, will you please listen…"

"I don't want to!"

"But please! I didn't mean to…"

"Miss Ojou-sama made a fool of Sirena in front of everyone! How can I not get angry especially since I asked you to give it to someone who can bring out its full potential!?" Reika demanded. Unbeknown to them, Reika had chased Takeru all the way to the beach next to the dorms and she was slowly inching in on Takeru as he was backing away into the sea.

"Reika, I'm sorry!" Takeru held up his hands defensively. "I really didn't want to give Sirena to her but she was begging so hard that I had to give it to her."

"Takeru, I told you to either give it to someone who can bring out its potential or keep it to remember me by." Reika growled. "And you failed both!"

She tried to lunge at him but he quickly sidestepped. Because of that, Reika lost her balance and fell straight into the sea.

"Reika!" Takeru called and tried to help her up. But she jerked away and screamed into the sky, startling him.

"You are so clueless!" She screamed and then stormed off but not before pushing Takeru such that he overbalanced and fell down into the sea too.

"Wha-! Reika!" Takeru scrambled to chase after her but she was already long gone by then.

* * *

"Hesh, he really is as clueless as Reika claims." Arata shook his head, having seen the whole thing. "Reika is obviously jealous that Takeru gave her former LBX to someone whom she doesn't like. Too bad Takeru is too oblivious to know that Reika likes him more than a friend. I thought that kiss would have clued him in. But nooo…"

"Arata!" Reika pouted, coming over to him, realizing that he saw the whole thing. "Why are you here?"

"I came looking for you." He said patiently, reaching into his backpack for a towel. "I got a little worried when you didn't come back even when the tournament was over." He pressed the towel on her head and rubbed it.

Reika pouted again and swatted away his hand. "Arata, I'm not a baby anymore!"

"Mature and we'll talk about it." Arata said pointedly. Reika pretended to scowl and folded her hands across her chest. But she broke into a smile and giggled.

"I miss this."

"What?" Arata asked as he continued to rub her hair with the towel although he had a feeling that he knew what she was referring to.

"You babying me." She said innocently.

Arata rolled his eyes with a smile and gave her his jacket. "Go back and change before you catch a cold."

"What about you?" Reika asked as she slipped on Arata's jacket.

"I'm going to congratulate Muraku. He won the tournament by the way." Arata said, heading back to the school. "Feel free to join us when you've changed. And if you can bring Mia. I think it may do her good to mix around."

"If you say so." Reika nodded but was dubious of whether this was a good idea.


	6. Artemist-Part I

**I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review!**

 **Author's note: Sorry it's taking so long but I got a lot of assignments to do for this semester. I have to sacrifice most of my writing time to do them.**

* * *

The time has come for Artemist to take place and the Kamui school representatives and Arata, Mia and Reika have arrived at Sydney for the tournament. And no one was any happier than Daimen to be back at home. Now, the day has come and they were standing in front of the venue.

Daimen cracked out a grin and waved at the stadium in front of them. "Will you look at that? The Outback Stadium, venue of various LBX tournaments including Artemist this year."

"It certainly gives the outback vibe." Arata nodded, eyeing the way the designers of the building gave it a brown backdrop with various Aboriginal Native's style paintings of various animals and plants which could only be found in the continent they are currently on.

"We better go and register." Haruki told them. "There's only an hour until the deadline."

"Alright." Arata nodded as the group was about to head inside. But he paused, glancing at an ice cream vendor. There were two ladies there and the black haired one was exasperated while her companion was having trouble on deciding what flavor of ice cream she wanted.

"Arata?" Hikaru cocked his head at him.

"Go on ahead. We'll meet you guys later." Arata said, grabbing Reika's hand and nodded at the ice cream vendor. The others shrugged and went inside, thinking that Arata was going to buy Reika ice cream. But unfortunately, they were wrong.

"Arata, I thought you said that I could not have ice cream for a week?" Reika frowned as he dragged her over.

He rolled his eyes and waved at the vendor. "Who is the ginger haired senior whom we know that always has trouble making up her mind when it comes to choices in food?"

Reika's eyes shot wide and jerked her eyes towards the said person. Her eyes became wider when she recognized her companion. "Lina-senpai! Hana-san!"

Hearing their names being called, Kalina and Hana spun around and were pleasantly surprise to see them. "Arata! Reika!"

"It's been a long time." Arata greeted them. "Oh, Lina-senpai, Yuko-nee sends her greetings."

Hana raised an eyebrow at her friend. "Senpai? You know them?"

"I used to study at their school." Kalina rolled her eyes and lightly punched her shoulder.

Hana shrugged and turned her smile at Reika. "I haven't seen you or Jin since your last visit to our collage last month. How is he?"

"He's fine." Reika grinned. "The doctor finally cleared him for LBX battling. But I don't know if he will be entering Artemist or not."

"He will be." Kalina snorted. "Ban said that he'll be entering so I suppose it's safe to say that Jin will be participating with him too."

"I see." Reika hummed. "What about the both of you? Are you entering too?"

"Yup, the both of us are tag teaming." Hana gestured at herself and Kalina.

"Then do you want to register with us?" Arata asked, guessing that they haven't yet.

"Of course." Kalina clapped her hands together and nodded. "But first…"

"Eh?"

"…We get ice cream!" Kalina spun back around to get her ice cream. Hana, Arata and Reika fell over at that. Trust Kalina to put food over registering for Artemist.

* * *

"This is so good." Reika grinned as she licked her ice cream while Arata and Hana went to join the others at the line while she chatted with their former senior. "And Arata forgot that he forbade me from having ice cream."

"He's still the same big brother type of person I remember." Kalina giggled. "Is it safe for me to assume that he kept Pyro in good shape?"

"Yup." Reika nodded. "He's really dedicated and constantly strives to improve his skills."

"Then my question was not necessary." Kalina said in slight relief. "And I can see that the both of you made a lot of friends since I last saw the both of you."

"Things just happened." Reika muttered.

Kalina glanced at her questioningly but her attention shifted when she spotted Mia sitting at one of the benches not too far from the registration counters.

"You didn't tell me that Mia's here too." Kalian said to Reika. Reika stiffed and looked away. Kaline looked at her in concerned. She glanced back at Mia and meet her gaze. Much to her surprise, Mia did not recognized her and shied away.

"She has amnesia." Reika told her senior. "Did you hear about what happened on Kamui Island six months ago?"

"Yeah. Hana told me about it…don't tell me that you guys were there as well."

"I'm afraid so." Reika sighed. "Mia was…in a very bad situation during the World Saber's takeover that made her like this."

"Ah, can't be helped then." Kalina sighed. "But I really hope that all of you will be more careful, what will the remnants of the World Sabers running around.

"R-remnants?" Reika paled.

"Yeah." Kalina nodded. "Even with their leader gone, many of the World Sabers members who were not part of the Kamui Island invasion have gone into hiding. I think they are waiting for their forces to be rebuilt and strike again."

Reika stared at her ice cream, unable to swallow what Kalina told her. If the remnants of the World Sabers were out there, there's no doubt that they will be coming after them for revenge.

"Hey, Reika. I don't mean to scare you, but I just want you to know that you should be more cautious with your surroundings now." Kalina explained, sensing her apprehensiveness. "And if necessary, I have no doubt that Yuko-senpai will do whatever it takes to protect you and Arata."

"Thanks." Reika thanked her with a weak smile.

"Reika!" Arata called her over when he and Muraku finally reached the counter.

"Coming!" Reika quickly gulped down the remaining of her ice cream and ran over to the counter. She placed her CCM on the scanner and the receptionist registered them.

"Sena Arata, Sena Reika, Houjou Muraku. All three of you will be signing up as a team, right?"

"That's right." Muraku nodded. Teaming up with the Sena siblings was admittingly a last minute thing. Initially, he had wanted Vanessa and Mikhail on his team but they were unable to come for various reasons. For some reason, he felt that they intentionally dropped out so that he would be able to spend more time with Mia and help her recover her memories.

"You are all registered." The receptionist smiled at them. "Have a great time in Artemist."

"Thank you." Arata said politely as they retrieved their CCM. While waiting for Hikaru and Hana's groups to register, they headed over to Mia at the bench.

"Mia, do you want to have ice cream?" Reika asked excitedly as she sat down beside her. "The ice cream vendor outside's ice cream is so good I want another when the tournament is over."

"Not so fast, young lady." Arata said sternly, tugging on a lock of her hair. "You weren't supposed to have ice cream this week. One exception is already enough."

"Arata!" Reika pouted.

Mia stared at them in amusement and giggled. "I don't want any ice cream, thank you very much."

Muraku let out a small smile and nudged her. "If you want, we can get some after the tournament. I'm sure that Arata would let Reika have another cone of ice cream then." He said softly so that neither of the Sena siblings could hear.

"I would love that." Mia whispered back.

"We're done." Hikaru said as he joined them. "Who was the lady you were talking with just now?" He asked Arata and Reika. Daimen followed his gaze and his eyes shot up.

"Isn't that Senior Lina?"

"Yup." Arata nodded. "Lina-senpai and Jin-san's girlfriend are entering as a tag team."

Everyone stared at him in surprise, more so at the fact that Jin has a girlfriend than Arata's former senior is participating in Artemist.

"And so are we."

Reika's ears twitched at that and she grinned, jumping around to tackle the person who said that. "Jin-san!"

Jin grunted as he tried to steady himself. Arata gave him a sympathetic look. "I would have thought that you are used to Reika's tackles by now."

"I'm getting there." Jin sighed as Reika released him. Behind him, Ban let out a small chuckle.

"So you did decide to show up." Kalina said as she joined the group, eyeing Ban as she said that. "I would have thought that you had second thoughts on signing up since you barely had an LBX battle for the past few years. I can count the number of times you battles with just one hand."

"It's great to see you too, Kalina." Ban merely replied with a pleasant smile, catching Arata, Reika and Daimen off-guard.

"We better go and let the adults talk." Reika whispered to the others who nodded simultaneously and ran off to the waiting rooms.

Hana rolled her eyes and went over to Jin. "I think Ban scared them. They know Kalina and I bet they never would have thought that anyone would stand up to her snarky attitude."

"I'm not surprise…wait, they know her?" Jin cocked his head at her.

"Well, Arata and Reika did. They said that she's their former senior and the one who gave Arata his first LBX and helped Reika obtain hers." Hana shrugged.

"I didn't know that." Jin said in mild surprise. Their attention was turned back to Kalina and Ban however when the former began to raise her voice.

"I'm beginning to doubt that we should even be together!" Kalina said vehemently.

Ban's face became slightly pained at that. "Kalina, why are you so fixed on trying to be better than I am?"

Kalina's eyes became wide and she lowered her head. "It's for something you would never understand." She said very softly than Ban did not hear but Jin caught part of it that made him frown and turn to Hana.

"We better stop them before they get out of hand. I don't want either of them to be emotionally hurt before the tournament."

"I agree." Hana nodded quickly as she moved to separate them. "Alright guys. I don't think we want to have another argument on hand, especially not before Artemist."

"Fine." Kalina huffed and stormed off. Hana gave Ban and apologetic smile and ran after her.

"Are you alright?" Jin asked his friend, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah. Don't worry. We have this conversation at least twice a week." Ban said with a sad smile.

Jin looked at his friend in concern. "Ban, I don't mean to sound like I'm breaking the both of you up. But I cannot see anything good coming out of your relationship with Kalina if this keeps up."

"I know. There are times I even wonder how we got together." Ban sighed.

"How did it happened?" Jin asked as he and Ban headed to the waiting rooms since they had registered early.

"Well, to put it simply, she sees me as a rival in our classes but until now, I don't know why. And one day, we got paired up for an assignment. She really hated it at first but as we did the project, I don't know, something changed and we got together."

Jin raised an eyebrow. "I don't understand…"

"Don't worry, I don't understand either." Ban sighed and had a wistful smile. "But I cannot deny it that I really like her. I'm just hoping that she'll trust me enough one day to tell me what's making her believe that she should be better than me."

Jin thought about his friends words for a moment and smiled. "I'm sure that you'll reach there one day. Come on. We better get ready."

Ban nodded in agreement, reaching for his pocket and clutched Odin M2 tightly. 'Artemist…we're here again.'


	7. Artemist-Part 2

**I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review!**

* * *

As the time passed, the start of Artemist was drawing near so all the players were double checking their LBX while performing last minute maintenance on them. As they did that, Arata and his friends were chatting about Kalina.

"Lina-senpai may come off as a cold person upon first meetings but she's actually a nice person underneath." Arata was saying to those who did not know her. "She was the one who gave me Pyroar to use." He added, holding up said LBX. Pyroar is an animalistic knight frame LBX with the head of a lion and orange mane with its body colored red and yellow in the pattern of flames. It has two swords hooked to its side and a staff on its back.

"And she even helped me choose Pandora as my LBX." Reika pipped in.

"That still does not explain the way she treated Ban-san though." Haruki frowned thoughtfully.

"I have no idea either." Arata held up his hands. "As far as I remember, she doesn't act provoked unless she really hates that person."

"In what sense would you put that?" Mia asked mildly.

Arata tapped a screwdriver on his chin thoughtfully before he answered. "I think…she really dislikes people who try to interrupt her when she's trying to make up her mind on food choices." There was a slight chuckle at that which Arata cracked a smile to, trying to keep his laughter inside. He cleared his throat and continued. "Anyway, that's only mere dislike. But for those she really hates…I don't know if I got this correct, but I think she hates it when people show her up and embarrassed her one way or another."

"Do you think Mister Ban did something that embarrassed her?" Daimen wondered.

"Maybe." Reika shrugged. "But I think it's not our place to pry."

Arata cocked his head at that and nodded in agreement. "Ok."

* * *

Soon, it was time for Artemist to start so everyone gathered at the main stadium and found their seats. The MC came up on stage and greeted them. "Welcome everyone to Artemist! It is great to once again see all LBX battlers passionately gathered here to compete for the title of the best! First off, we are going to divide all teams into five blocks and the winner of each block will compete in the battle royal. The list of each block will be shown right now."

"We're in Block A." Arata noted after scanning through. Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed that Reika was vibrating in her seat and sweatdropped. "It's a good thing we're going first."

"Hikaru's group is in Block C." Muraku stated, spotting their friend's name at the said block. "Jin-san and Ban-san's team is placed in Block B…And so is your seniors'."

Arata's eyes shifted back at the screen and saw that Kalina and Hana's team was indeed placed in Block B as well. But both theirs and the Ban-Jin teams are placed such that they will not meet unless they reach the block finals. A few other well-known players caught his eyes as he swept them through the screen.

'There's Asuka-san. I think she arrived a little later than we did…She's in Block D. And the Maxus Trio, the top players of Europe. Thankfully, they are in Block E now. This isn't going to be as easy as we thought.'

"I have a bad feeling about this." He said out loud as he shifted in his seat. Without looking, he grabbed Reika hand, preventing her from consuming another sweet. "And what did we say about having sweets before matches?"

"Aw, Arata." Reika whined but was still shaking in her seat. "I'm too excited."

Arata facepalmed and turned to Muraku. "We better let Reika take the first round or she'll burst from excitement and hyperactivity."

Muraku sighed inaudibly but nodded, knowing from past experience that a hyper and excited Reika will mean a very destructive Reika. He turned to Mia who was watching them quietly and smiled at her. "We'll be up for the first round. Will you be alright by yourself?"

"Sure." Mia nodded with a small smile. "Good luck."

The three of them nodded and went down to the stage to get ready.

"For the first round, the matches will be one-on-one." Arata remembered.

"So who's our first opponent?" Reika asked as she bounced on her toes.

"I am." A cheerful voice rang out. A young boy slightly younger than Wataru stood at the other end of the city terrain diorama. "So you guys are from Kamui Island? Cool! I want to go there too but I still need one more win to enter the school."

"I suddenly feel bad for pitting Reika against him." Arata whispered to Muraku while keeping an eye at Reika who was now impatient for the match to begin. "I would rather either of us face him instead of Reika. She will crush him."

"I agree." Muraku nodded. "The reason why the school was even allowed to send its students here is to promote it after what happened with the World Sabers. And since he is a potential student, I would rather take the lead on this one."

"Sure." Arata nodded and pulled Reika back slightly. "Reika, we'll let Muraku handle this one."

"Fine." Reika relented but her impatience did not cease.

"I will be your opponent." Muraku told the boy as he got his CCM and Magna Orthus ready.

"Cool."

"Ready…Go!"

"Magna Orthus!"

"Warrior!"

Muraku allowed the boy to make the first move which he did. Warrior jumped and brought down its sword on Magna Orthus but it blocked it with its shield. Magna Orthus drew out its sword and parried some of the blows. Muraku watched Warrior's movements and was impressed by how fast the boy was adapting to his battle style. But still, he had to win this match.

Muraku purposely drew back Magna Orthus to put some distance in between it and Warrior. The boy fell into the trap and rushed at Magna Orthus. When it was just a few meters from it, Magna Orthus jumped and slashed its sword down Warrior's back, defeating it.

"Break over! Houjou Muraku's Magna Orthus has just pulled a win for his team. He will be advancing to the second rounds!"

"Cheer up." Muraku told the dishearten boy. "You were pretty good. You just need more experience against strong players. I'm sure that there are other tournaments which you will excel in. Artemist may be a bit too much for a lot of people, even for me."

"Ok." The boy nodded. He was less glum than he was before and offered Muraku a small smile. "Thanks for the advice. I'll work hard and I will see you again at Kamui Daimon soon!"

"Of course." Muraku nodded. Soon, the trio made their way down the platform while waiting for the next match to end.

"I guess you'll have a new student on the school's roster soon." Arata grinned.

"Yup. He's good and has potential but he needs more experience and practice before he can get in." Reika nodded in agreement.

"I know." Muraku nodded and turned to them. "So the both of you are up next?"

"Sure, Reika needs to get all that pent up energy out of her and I don't think it'll stay in until the finals." Arata said, casting his sister an exasperated look.

Muraku had to chuckle at that. "Good luck then."

* * *

The team's next opponents were two obnoxious players who were the champions of the overall Eastern provenience of Japan. Needless to say, they rubbed the Sena siblings the wrong way and for once, Arata was glad that Reika had a lot of energy in her.

"I'm so going to kill them. I'm so going to kill them." Reika kept on muttering as her Pandora lifted one of the Buld's over its head and tossed it straight at the wall of the castle terrain diorama they were using.

"What are you doing!?" The other player yelled at the owner of the Buld. "She's just a pathetic girl!"

In retaliation, Pyroar whacked its staff on his Amazoness's head really hard that it promptly broke over. Behind the commotion, Pandora was creating another one of its own. It grabbed the Buld and swung it around, occasionally bashing it on the ground. Eventually, it flung the Buld straight into the wall, defeating it as well.

"No way! We lost to two brats!?" The controller of the Buld wailed. The owner of Amazoness looked like he wanted to punch them but refrained himself from doing so in front of the crowd. Arata and Reika shared a high five while Muraku bit his lip to contain his laughter. This was surely one of the most amusing matches he had seen.

* * *

During the intermission before the third round, Arata, Reika and Muraku met up with Hikaru groups and Mia in the waiting rooms to perform maintenance on their LBXs.

"That was an interesting match. You're still the overprotective brother." Daimen smirked at Arata. "A nice whack on the forehead for an idiot like him."

"An idiot who doesn't know how to filter his mouth." Arata said nonchalantly as he examined Pyroar.

"Hey brats!"

"Oh great." Arata muttered as he and Reika lifted their heads, giving their opponent from just now a deadpanned stare. "What?"

"I'll prove to everyone that your win was just a fluke!" The man raved. Beside him, his partner had an equally irritated look and glared at them. But taking a leaf out of Maya's books, Muraku returned it with a death glare. The partner shrank back but his friend was unfazed by it.

"Take this!" Much to the shock of everyone, he drew back his fist and attempted to punch Arata. Out of instinct, Arata docked and was about to counter it but stopped when a wicked idea came to him that made him smirk. He winked at Reika who smirked and winked back.

"What's so funny?" The man growled.

"Oh, nothing." Arata said nonchalantly. "Except for this." He said, pointing at Reika.

Reika grinned innocently before bursting out into wails, pointing at the two men. "Wah! These guys are going to hurt us!"

Promptly, everyone in the room turned their heads at the group and threw scornfully glares at the duo who gulped and backed away nervously, especially since Jin and Ban were storming towards them with dangerous looks.

"What is this that I heard about you trying to hurt my sister?" Jin politely demanded in an icy cold tone.

"Kaidou!" The scaredy one of the duo recognized him.

"You have a lot of nerve trying to hurt two defenseless kids." Asuka stormed over with her own glare, unaware that the teens were casting her incredulous looks for her words. Arata and Reika were not defenseless. In fact, they were far from it. But for the sake of fun and teaching the duo a lesson, they kept their mouths shut.

"In my opinion, you guys are just sore losers who resort to bullying just because you lost. And to kids, no less!" Kalina added as she and Hana approached them.

Realizing that it was not worth incurring the wrath of so many other talented, famous players, the duo fled.

The teens sighed in relief. Jin went over to Reika and looked over her. "They didn't do anything to you, didn't they?"

"Nope." Reika shook her head demurely.

"Good." Jin patted her shoulder and turned to Ban who was now engaged in a staring contest with Kalina.

"Um, Kalina, let's go prepare." Hana said awkwardly, pulling her friend away.

"Let us know if those guys try to bother you guys again." Asuka said as she started moving away. "By the way, Ban, you better sort out your boy-girl problems! I want to have a rematch with you when you're at your fullest!"

"Sure thing." Ban nodded with a smile. But once she was gone, it faded. He thought about something and turned to Arata. "May I have a word with you in private?"

"Um, sure." Arata shrugged and followed Ban out of the waiting rooms to the corridor. "Can I take a guess that this is about Lina-senpai?"

"Yes." Ban nodded, running his hand through his hair. "Jin said that you are close with her so I was hoping that you could help me."

"Um, I don't really want to say anything about your relationship…"

"No, I'm not going to ask you anything regarding that." Ban reassured him. "I just want to know if you have any idea why she thinks she needs to be better than me."

Arata opened and closed his mouth at that. "I can't really say. But I do know some ways to persuade her to do it. Bet on it."

"What?" Ban cocked an eyebrow, not quite understanding.

"Kalina's biggest weakness is that she won't turn down a bet, especially if it is from someone she sees as a rival."

"Wait." Ban held up his hand. "So you're saying that I should bet on something that if I win, she has to tell me why."

"You didn't hear about it from me." Arata said mysteriously and went back inside the waiting rooms.

"Bet on it, huh." Ban mused. The more he thought about it, he realized that it may work. But he has to think on what to bet on or it will not work. Still, this would be the thing that he needs to finally get Kalina to open up and be honest with him.


	8. Block A Finals

**I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review!**

 **I should be using this time to study or complete my last assignments but I could not help and do this. I usually don't like to do long LBX battles but I had fun writing this one.**

* * *

Artemist continued as Arata, Muraku and Reika stormed through their block, making them one of the favorites to reach the final stage. But so were their opponents. They were going to face the strongest team in Britain, the Knights of Cupid. Therefore, before the final stage, they were concentrating intensely on ensuring their LBX were in top shape.

"What do we know about them?" Arata asked as he fixed Pyroar's staff.

"The Knights of Cupid managed to make it this far thanks to their superb teamwork and their special Hissatsu Function." Muraku explained, not looking up from his maintenance on Magna Orthus exactly as Kageto taught him. This made Arata and Reika smile slightly. Up until now, Muraku could not be trusted to handle the maintenance of his LBX completely, hence Kageto going great lengths to teach him the basics of maintaining his LBX before they came here.

"A special Hissatsu Function?" Reika said curiously.

"I don't know much about it." Muraku admitted, finally looking up. "But it is very unique from what I heard."

"Their move is nothing more than a rip off from the Pokemon move Future Sight." Kalina spoke from behind them.

"Lina-senpai?" Arata and Reika said in surprise from seeing her there.

"What do you mean by that?" Muraku asked her politely.

"In the Pokemon games and shows, there is a move call Future Sight which sends projectiles supposedly in the future to hurt the opponent's Pokemon in the future of the battle." Kalina explained, tossing her head in disgust. "These guys actually managed to find a way to copy it. Their LBX sends projections into the air which will then become invisible. After a certain duration of time, the projections will reappear and drop down on the enemy LBX."

"I…see." Arata sweatdropped. He had played those games some time ago in the past and he remembered Future Sight very clearly. To think that this team managed to create a Hissatsu Function which could do that.

"And one more thing, the Knights of Cupid are nothing more than a couple who love to throw people off not only by their teamwork, but with their lovey-dovey act." Kalina added before she went off to find Hana.

"Ok." Arata trailed off.

"This would probably be hard." Muraku frowned. "We have to keep our focus during our match. Also, we have to watch out for that Future Sight Hissatsu Function."

"The focus part we can easily do that." Reika tapped her finger on her chin thoughtfully. "I mean, we're martial artists, right? Keeping focus is an important part of our training."

"You're right." Muraku conceded. "But that does not mean that we can let down our guard, especially since our teamwork is not as good as ours."

"You worry too much, Muraku." Arata's lips twitched into a smile. "We may not have the best teamwork, but we could do strategy. Since you and Reika have the least experience working together, I think I can safely say that Pyroar will be positioned in the middle of the both of you since I can work well with either of you."

"Let's not think of our teamwork strategy yet." Reika suggested. "I know that you can work well with either of us, but we don't know much about the Knights of Cupid's teamwork strategy."

"I agree." Muraku nodded as well. "But for now, we'll stick to Arata's plan and change it when we see fit during the battle."

"Alright." Arata relented. "But we got to think of something against their Hissatsu Function too."

"For now, we can go on defense until we see what it does ourselves." Muraku strategized.

"Good idea." Arata and Reika nodded. They quickly finished up their maintenance and kept their tools and spare parts.

"We're all set."

* * *

"Welcome back everyone!" The MC yelled into his mic. "We are back for the final round of Block A. On the North side of the stage, we have the Houjou Muraku team. They have been a formidable team, plowing through match after match! And on the South side of the stage, we have the Knights of Cupid! This couple, Alex and Belinda Knight, have shown us their superb teamwork and unique Hissatsu Function!"

"Hi all!" Alex twirled Belinda and winked at the crowd. "Let us dazzle you with our love!" They sent kisses to the crowd and it went wild.

"Alex!"

"Belinda!"

"Give me a break." Reika silently moaned to Arata. "This is their lovey-dovey act?"

"Focus, Reika. Like you said, we are martial artists. So we got to show them how we act now that we have seen theirs." Arata grinned slightly as he and Muraku readied their LBXs.

"Fine." Reika sighed in disappointment and readied Pandora.

"Battle Start!"

"Pyroar!"

"Magna Orthus!"

"Pandora!"

"For you, love. Kunoichi!" Belinda kissed her LBX and sent it out.

"For you, darling. Deqoo!" Alex mimicked his wife's actions.

Reika gagged under her breath before being nudged by her brother. She sighed and tuned all focus to the match. Surprisingly, when she did that, she had completely blocked out the crowd, Alex, and Belinda despite her heightened senses.

Kunoichi and Deqoo were swift to attack. Kunoichi attack Pyroar with its daggers with flurries of slashes. When Magna Orthus fired at Deqoo with its rifle, it deflected them with its shield and shot at Pyroar when it tried to hit Kunoichi with its staff, forcing Pandora to step in and slash Deqoo with its tessens. But Kunoichi had jumped away from Pyroar and slashed at Pandora.

"When one is under attack, the other saves it. When one attacks, the other defends it." Arata mused as all three of their LBXs regrouped away from Kunoichi and Deqoo. "We got to separate them if we want to break their teamwork."

"I have an idea on how to counter that. But I need to borrow Pyroar's staff." Reika told them.

"Sure." Pyroar tossed its staff at Pandora as it clipped its tessens to its back.

"When I give the signal, move in and push them away from each other as far as you can." Reika whispered.

"Got it." Arata and Muraku nodded. Pandora jumped away and landed in front of Kunoichi and Deqoo.

"Foolish girl." Alex sneered as Deqoo quickly fired at Pandora.

Pandora quickly deflected each of the shots with the staff and smacked it at Kunoichi's face before leaping away.

"What!?"

"The problem of your style of battle is that when Deqoo attacks, Kunoichi cannot attack or it'll get damaged too since it uses short range weapons." Reika grinned. "That leaves a window of a second when Deqoo stops its attack and Kunoichi moves in."

"And even one second is more than enough for us." Arata smirked.

"Don't underestimate us." Belinda growled. Deqoo and Kunoichi then moved in to attack together. But Reika remained unfazed and directed Pandora jump over them and insert her staff horizontally between them. With a hard jerk, Deqoo and Kunoichi were sent flying away from each other.

"Now!"

Pyroar and Magna Orthus quickly dashed at Deqoo and Kunoichi respectively and pushed them all the way to the walls of the diorama and smashed them on it. They regrouped back with Pandora as Deqoo and Kunoichi got up shakily.

Alex tightened his grip on his CCM. "We're not done yet, brats."

"You have yet to see our full power." Belinda growled.

"Hissatsu Function!" They called.

 _Attack Function_

 _Future Impact_

Kunoichi and Deqoo slammed their fists on the ground, sending rocks flying in the air which became invisible and hovered in the air.

"The Future Sight Hissastsu Function." Arata gritted his teeth.

"Hey! Our move is cooler than that Pokemon move!" Alex protested.

"It's still nothing but a rip off Future Sight." Reika taunted back. "Real creative of you guys."

"No matter!" Alex declared with a dramatic pose, ignoring what Reika said. "We will demolish you with Future Impact and prove our love to the world!"

"As though all those lovey-dovey acts were not enough." Reika grumbled as Kunoichi and Deqoo began their attacks. The three of them tensed for they not only had to look out for the projections which could appear again any time and from defending themselves from the two LBX's onslaught attacks.

"I'm open to suggestions now!" Arata said as Pyroar barely blocked Kunoichi's slashes with its swords now in hand. As much as he hated to admit it, they lost their rhythm of teamwork the moment they switched from offence to defense due to the caution of Future Impact.

"It's time, Belinda." Alex whispered to his wife. She smirked and nodded back. Together, Kunoichi and Deqoo brought their daggers and shield down on Magna Orthus and Pandora respectively, forcing them to jump away and landed right at the center of the diorama.

"No! Get away from there!" Arata cried, realizing why Kunoichi and Deqoo did so. As soon as those words left his mouth, the projections became visible again, falling down on Magna Orthus and Pandora. When the smoke from the impact cleared, both LBX were damaged but Pandora sustained more damage than Magna Orthus who had its shield take the brunt of the attack and it did not have anything other than Pyroar's staff.

"Pandora will go down if it sustains another attack." Reika said quietly as her LBX pulled away to their side of the diorama.

Arata bit his lip until an inspiration struck him. "Then you don't have to battle anymore. I have an idea." He spoke in low tones to Muraku and Reika so that the couple wouldn't be able to hear them.

"No matter what you come up with, it will be useless." Belinda bragged as Kunoichi and Deqoo poised to use Future Impact again. Thankfully, Arata was done explaining whatever he had in mind so they tensed as they prepared for it.

"Hissatsu Function!"

 _Attack Function_

 _Future Impact_

As the projections were sent into the air and became invisible, Pandora began swinging the staff back and forth. Seeing it immobile, Kunoichi and Deqoo rushed at her, thinking that it'll be an easy target. However, they forgot to take into account that Reika was not the only person battling against them and Pyroar and Magna Orthus had its back.

"Forget about going on defense." Muraku told Arata. "We already know what Future Impact can do. There is no point holding back from attacking them."

"My thoughts exactly." He smirked and tapped several commands into his CCM with Muraku doing the same. "Pyro Mode!"

"Raging Mode!"

Both of their CCMs' screens glowed and opened up, creating a secondary screen, Arata's being red and Muraku's purple. Down in the diorama, Pyroar's body became outlined in red and its swords were heated up to become red with orange sheen. Magna Orthus on the other hand was outlined in black.

"With our special modes, we should last through one more Future Impact." Muraku declared.

"Those special modes of yours are fancy, but they won't get the best of us." Alex smirked.

"We shall see." Arata said evenly. As Pyroar and Magna Orthus moved in to attack, Alex and Belinda grimaced, seeing as their speed and attack power had gone up. When Pyroar attacked Deqoo, its swords would burn through Deqoo's frame while Magna Orthus left blacked cuts on Kunoichi.

"How much longer?" Belinda demanded from her husband as they could only defend from Pyroar and Magna Orthus's attacks.

"Not too long. It should be appearing…now!"

The projectiles became visible and like before, they dropped down on Pyroar and Magna Orthus, taking their owners by surprise. But Arata managed to snap out of its shock long enough for Pyroar to take cover behind Magna Orthus who raised its shield like before to protect themselves. When the attack ended, it was clear that the damaged was not as bad as the first time thanks to their special modes and Magna Orthus protecting the both of them with its shield. At the same time, Pandora stopped swinging its staff.

"Did you get it?" Arata asked Reika.

"You underestimate my pendulum senses." Reika smirked.

"Just checking." Arata chuckled.

"Future Impact didn't work." Belinda growled.

"I told you that we should have turned up its power." Alex snarled.

"Well I would have agreed if someone didn't make us late for registering so we didn't have enough time to do so!" Belinda snapped back. Much to the dismay of the majority of the audience, they started bickering among themselves.

* * *

"When under pressure, true teamwork will prevail." Jin remarked as he shook his head.

"Yup." Ban nodded in agreement. "In my opinion, Alex and Belinda's teamwork is based on their obligations as spouses. But Arata's team's teamwork is naturally born from the friendship they have. It may not be the best, but it is strong enough that they willingly corporate together, especially when they were under pressure."

"But," Jin narrowed his eyes. "The battle is not over yet. If they take another Future Impact head on, I doubt that they will win. They still need to find a way to counter it if they want to win."

"Have faith in them." Kalian remarked from her seat in front of them, not once speaking up as she was watching Pandora intently. "Arata had already found a way to do so, which is why he had Pandora act as their timer."

Ban, Jin and Hana looked at her in surprise, curiosity visible in their eyes. Seeing this, Kalina rolled her eyes and gestured down at the diorama. "The timing of Future Impact was always the same. Arata merely used that to their advantage."

* * *

Down at the stage, Belinda and Alex had stopped their bickering long enough to launch another Future Impact but as they continued to battle Pyroar and Magna Orthus, it was becoming painfully clear to them that their teamwork was falling apart.

Meanwhile, Pandora's swings on the staff came to a certain point where Reika raised an eyebrow and turned to Arata and Muraku with a nod and smirk. "Five seconds."

"Got it." Muraku and Arata smirked back.

Pyroar and Magna Orthus grabbed Kunoichi and Deqoo which was relatively easy since they were no longer watching each other's back. They pulled them to the center of the diorama, pushing through despite their close range attacks in an effort to break free. Pyroar and Magna Orthus threw the two LBX straight at each other and they collided right below the projectiles which are beginning to become visible again. Before they had the chance to move away, the projectiles dropped down straight at them. When the dust cleared, a blueish light emitted from the two LBX.

"Break over!" The MC yelled. "The Muraku team has defeated the Knights of Cupid! They will be the ones moving to the final rounds!"

"I see." Ban mused. "Reika was timing the duration of Future Impact by having Pandora swing its staff to calculate how long the projectiles would stay invisible."

"Took you long enough to figure that out." Kalina snarked.

"Kalina, I didn't figure that out either until the last Future Impact." Jin tried to placate her. "But how did you figure that out?"

"There will always be a weakness to exploit. That's what I taught him." Kalian said with a hint of pride, referring to Arata. "I merely explained to him the basis of the move. And he quickly figured it out. I knew all about the fixed timing but I didn't mention it to him though. So the best way to counter Future Impact is to know when it will appear."

Jin and Hana exchanged tired looks as they expected another argument from them. But much to their surprise, Kalina did not bother stay for long and started to head down to the stage. "Hana, come on. We got to get ready. It's going to be our turn next."

Hana wordlessly got up to follow her but Ban grabbed her hand and gestured for her to wait. "Kalina, I want to make a proposition."

Kalina halted in her steps and spun around sharply. "What?"

Ban merely offered her a smile. "I've been wondering about which one of our teams will win when we reach the block finals. So why don't we make it more interesting by having a bet."

Kalina inwardly groaned, knowing that Ban had hit one of her weak points. Now, she won't be able to resist agreeing to the bet, knowing exactly what Ban wanted. "What's the bet going to be about?"

"If you win, you got to be honest with me for every question that I ask after this." Ban smirked.

"And if you don't?" Kalina asked slyly.

"You can decide on it." Ban shrugged.

"I'll think about that condition. But for now, I'll take you on the bet." Kalina grinned, shaking his hand, signifying the sealing of the bet.

"Oh boy." Hana sighed, knowing how this would end, based on her experience on Kalina acting on bets.

"Does this happen often?" Jin asked with a sigh as well.

"More than I would like." Hana grimaced.

* * *

 **I got the idea of Future Impact and the method Arata delt with it from Pokemon XY where Ash battled Olympia.**


	9. Conflicts and Fears

**I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review!**

* * *

As Artemist went on, unsurprisingly, Ban and Jin's team made it to the finals of Block B as well as Kalina and Hana's team.

"This ought to be interesting." Daimen grinned. "Two extremely good LBX battlers whose levels are close to pros like Kojou Asuka and two…" He trailed off as he tried to think of how to describe Kalina and Hana.

"Two IT students whose LBXs are really cool, technical speaking?" Mia offered.

"Thanks." Daimen grinned, offering her a thumbs up. "This is going to be great."

"I don't know." Arata frowned. "You know how Lina-senpai can get when rivalry is involved. And not to mention, I have a very strong feeling that she's been holding back the whole time during the block preliminaries."

"Lina-senpai is definitely saving something for Ban." Reika sniggered. "I think they are one of the funniest couples despite all of their arguments."

"I could say the same for you and Takeru." Arata said mildly with a knowing smile.

Reika instantly blushed at that and waved her arms around. "That is irrelevant in this case! There's nothing going on between me and Takeru!"

Arata only chuckled in amusement. "Reika, anyone but him can see how much you like him. You wouldn't get so mad at him for giving Sirena to Miss Ojou-sama if that weren't the case."

"You got to be blunt with him if you want to tell him how you feel for him." Daimen snickered as well.

Taking pity on Reika, Mia diverted their attention by gesturing at the diorama below. "Guys, I think they are starting now."

Instantly, all attention was diverted down to the stadium and Reika shot Mia a grateful smile which she returned.

"Welcome back everyone!" The MC screamed into his mic. "We will now commerce the finals of Block B at the central diorama! On the East side we have the Yamano Ban and Kaidou Jin team. They are no strangers to us having competed twice before in Artemist before their hiatus for four years. But even so, they have shown that they are still the powerful LBX players from before! And on the West side, we have newcomers Kayagi Hana and Kalina Black! Don't underestimate them. They have shown to be capable of taking down their opponents with tricky tactics and strategy!"

"Finally." Ban muttered as they stepped up to the diorama. "Kalina, you do remember about our bet, don't you?"

"Of course not." Kalina scoffed. "But just so you know, I won't be losing to you today."

"I honestly hope that you remember that our opponent is not only Ban but also Jin." Hana whispered to her.

"I know, that's why you have my back." Kalina smirked. Hana rolled her eyes but did not say anything about that.

"Ready, go!"

"Odin M2!"

"Triton!"

"Athena!"

"Drago!"

Ban stared at Drago, a wild framed LBX that was shaped like a dragon in brown with a yellow underbelly coloring. In its hand was a dual blade colored white. There was a colorful core in the center of it which caught Arata's attention.

"I don't remember Drago having that core." He remarked, making his friends look at him.

"What do you mean?" Hikaru asked him.

"I've seen her use Drago before and the core is different from what it was before."

"She could have changed it." Haruki pointed out.

"She couldn't." Reika shook her head. "Drago's design is very complicated such that the core cannot be simply changed unless necessary. I don't know how, but you can ask her later."

"I think she has a trick relating to the core." Muraku said with narrowed eyes.

"You might be right." Arata shrugged and adverted his gaze back to the diorama. Triton and Athena were clashing while Drago had locked on to Odin M2.

"Should anyone be surprise that this is turning into a couple's battle?" He asked in dry humor.

"I think everyone expected it." Daimen replied drily.

* * *

Ban and Jin soon found out that Kalina and Hana are not people to be underestimated for their attacks were relentless and were not giving them any room for them to attack.

"Ban-kun, I think we are taking on the wrong opponents." Jin said softly to him.

Ban raised an eyebrow at that. "So you are suggesting that we switch?"

"Yes." Jin nodded.

"Alright." Ban agreed. In an instant, Triton and Odin M2 broke away from Athena and Drago respectively and exchanged opponents faster than the girls could react. Triton quickly slammed its anchor on Drago while Odin M2 slashed at Athena with its Restraighter.

"Grr…" Kalina growled at their actions. It was harder to predict Jin's movements since she barely knew his tactics but Hana was doing well against Ban as she was against Jin since she knew both of them well. Against her better judgement, she decided it was time to use that.

"Hissastu Function!" If anyone looked closely, they would see that the core gaining a red tint.

 _Attack Function_

 _Blazing Storm_

Drago spun its dual blade, igniting it in flames before shooting a tornado of fire straight at Odin M2, causing it to be pushed back and scorched.

"Kalina, you're using that now!?" Hana said in shock.

"Unless you have a better plan, I'm using it." She muttered back.

"What is she planning?" Ban wondered with a frown. He and Jin exchanged glances but resumed taking on their opponents. Thankfully, Odin M2 was not damaged badly by that Hissatsu Function.

"Hissatsu Function!"

Hana threw her friend an exasperated look, making Jin frown and wonder if there was something wrong but tensed for Blazing Storm. But much to his surprise, it was a different Hissatsu Function.

 _Attack Function_

 _Vine Tower_

"What?!"

"I thought every LBX can only have one type of element Hissatsu!" Ban exclaimed as vines shot out from the ground and ensnared Triton which Athena took the chance and stabbed at it with its spear but Triton grabbed it and jerked at it to cut through the vines.

"How can it be?" Hikaru said in disbelief. "I thought all LBX only has one type of element and can only use that element type of Hissatsu."

"I thought so too." Daimen shook his head in shock.

"Arata, what do you think?" Muraku muttered to him.

"The core had a green tint when it used Vine Tower just as it had a red tint when it used Blazing Storm." Arata muttered. "So you were right. The core has a trick…"

Muraku and Reika looked at him curiously as to why he trailed off. But Arata shook his head to dismiss it. "It's nothing. I thought this technique looked familiar but I might be mistaken."

"Kalina…" Hana trailed off in exasperation. "You're letting your frustration get the best of you. If you continue to use that…"

Kalina scowled but then understood what her friend was telling her. The core of Drago then became clear. Triton and Odin M2 then focused all their attacks on it, sensing that it was a bigger threat than Athena.

"And now, you not only get to battle your boyfriend, but mine too." Hana smirked jokingly. "Should I be offended?"

"Just wait until they forget about you then strike." Kalina hissed as Drago slammed its blade against Triton's anchor and kicked away Odin M2's Restraightener.

Hana rolled her eyes but stayed away from a minute or two until she was sure that neither Triton and Odin M2 were paying attention to her before bringing up Athena's spear on Triton. However, Triton abruptly spun around, stabbing it with the tip of the anchor, making it break over.

"I can never sneak up on you." Hana accepted defeat with good grace.

Jin smiled lightly at that. "Nice try though."

"Good luck with Kalina." Hana joked. "She can be a bulldozer when she's mad."

True to her word, Kalina was needless to say, mad that Athena was defeated so she turned her attention to Triton instead. Drado spun its dual blade and began to duel with it, occasionally parring Odin M2's attacks.

"I see." Jin grimaced when Triton accidentally got its anchor stuck in a rockwall. Drago raised its dual blade to strike it but Odin M2 blocked it with its Restraightener. Instantly, Drago spun at it and they began to exchange attacks. When Triton managed to free its anchor, it joined Odin M2 and together, they began to push Drago into a corner.

"Hissatsu Function!" Jin called and Odin M2 jumped out of the way, anticipating Triton's attack.

 _Attack Function_

 _Ocean Blast_

Triton surrounded itself in a water spear and swung its ancho around it. Kalina gripped her CCM hard in her hand and decided to just go with it. "Hissatsu Function!"

"What?!" Hana exclaimed in shock.

 _Attack Function_

 _Shock Rod_

The core gained a yellow tint and Drago raised its dual blade which is filled with electricity and plunged it into Ocean Blast's wave which electrocuted the water and travelled up to Triton, electrocuting as well. When the attacks died down, Triton broke over.

"Kalina, you know what will happen if you use it too often." Hana hissed. But her face fell when she saw her friend's state.

Kalina's body was trembling as she tightened her grip on her CCM further. "Do you think I don't know that? I lost too much to the Yamanos. I cannot lose to them anymore!"

"Kalina." Hana's eyes fell, understanding what she meant. Ban and Jin were confused however by what she said.

* * *

"I remember now." Arata suddenly exclaimed. "The core that manipulates element type of the user. That's the invention of Lina-senpai's father, Professor Suttos Black."

"Eh?" Everyone looked at him in surprise.

"Professor Suttos Black…I think heard of that name before." Muraku mused.

"He's a military technology scientist." Reika told them as she too remembered about the technology which Kalina is now using. "I remember that he once gave a lecture to our school of the technological advancements in military using his own work as an example."

"And the core was included." Daimen realized.

"Yes." Arata nodded. "It was originally going to be part of a military weapon that he was being funded to create. But after the events of Mizel all those years ago, his funding was abruptly cut off and the rest of his inventions were either cast off or stolen by other inventors."

"And you think that what she said about losing to the Yamanos is referring to that?" Hikaru frowned.

"Maybe." Arata's frown deepened. "But I have a feeling her words run deeper than that."

* * *

Back at the diorama, Drago's speed and power had significantly dropped as the match with Odin M2 progressed.

"Using that many element Hissatsu Function must have placed a huge burden on Drago." Jin realized and turned to his friend who had set his lips in a thin line. After a moment, he ceased operating Odin M2.

Kalina gapped at this and glared at him. "What are you doing?

"This is getting out of hand. We never should have brought our problems into this match." Ban told her, his hair covering his eyes. "As LBX players, we're supposed to give our all in the match, no matter what our problems are. And we are not supposed to let our problems get the best of us in the match."

Kalina's glared hardened but her grip on her CCM loosened by a fraction. "…Fine. But this also means that the bet is off."

"Deal." Ban nodded.

"Finally." Hana sighed in relief as Odin M2 and Drago continued their battle. With Kalina calmed down and Ban increasing his focus on the match, it was getting harder to predict who will win this match.

However, the match ended when Odin M2 stabbed through Drago's shoulder with its Restraightener when Ban saw a small opening Kalina 'accidentally' made.

"Break over! The winner of this match is the Ban and Jin team!"

Hana casted her friend a suspicious look but she merely ignored her, picking up Drago from the diorama and left without waiting for her.

"That was not how I expected the match to end." Daimen sighed as he, Hikaru and Haruki got up to get ready for their turn.

"Maybe, but still, either Jin-san or Ban-san are going to be our opponents in the finals. And you guys just have to win to add more excitement to the fun." Reika grinned.

"Of course." Hikaru said firmly which made Haruki and Daimen exchanged smiles.

"Where's Arata?" Mia suddenly spoke up, not seeing him with them.

"He left just before the match ended." Reika shrugged, gesturing down at the diorama where Ban, Jin and Hana were just leaving, presumely to look for Kalina.

* * *

Kalina walked quietly outside and headed towards the harbor. Sitting on the ledge, she sighed and examined Drago, thankful that the core was still intact. It would be a huge pain to rebuild and replace the core again. As she stared out at the boats that were passing, an ice cream appeared within her line of sight. She smiled and took it. "How did you know that I would be here, Arata?"

"It wasn't so hard. Especially when I know that you would prefer to go somewhere Ban-san and the others cannot find you." Arata shrugged as he sat down beside her with an ice cream of his own in his hands. "So care to explain why you threw away that match?"

"I don't know what you are talking about." Kalina said nonchalantly, taking a bit out of her ice cream.

"Lina-senpai, you could have taken the match but you didn't." Arata rolled his eyes. "Also, I know that you wouldn't easily lower your guard, especially around someone you hate."

"I don't hate Ban." Kalina said forcefully. "But I don't like him a lot either."

"Then why date him?" Arata raised an eyebrow.

"It's complicated." Kalina groaned, rubbing her forehead. "You know how some love stories talk about the boy and the girl hating each other and then suddenly loving each other? Well, I feel like I'm somewhere between love and hate for him."

"It doesn't seem that way from what I saw." Arata said mildly but then frowned. "It's not Ban that you hate, it's the Yamano family."

Kalina paused in eating her ice cream and slowly nodded. "Yeah. I hate his father for what he did to my father."

"What happened?" Arata asked concernedly. "What happened between Professor Black and Professor Yamano that made you like this?"

Kalina sighed and threw the remains of her ice cream into a nearby bin. "It's a long story."

"I got a lot of time." Arata shrugged.

"Alright." Kalina took a deep breath. "Everyone knows Professor Yamano invented LBX, but what they don't know is that dad was the one who invented the concept of the core box."

"Oh, I didn't know that." Arata rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"It is because they never bothered to acknowledge that." Kalina said bitterly. "I remember Professor Yamano being dad's friend at one time in his life and he shared his idea of the concept of the core box with him. Later, we learned that Professor Yamano invented LBX and dad was glad for him…until he learned that he was not credited as the founder of the idea of the core box."

Arata winced at that. "It must have hurt him a lot."

"Yeah." Kalina nodded. "Until now, I remember dad fighting with Professor Yamano a lot after that even until he presumably died. Because of Professor Yamano's actions, dad could not sell his inventions anymore because a lot of people saw it as a copycat of Professor Yamano's concept of LBX. Which is why, in the end, he had to resort to working for the military just to continue obtaining the funding for his inventions."

"I see. And when the Mizel incident ended, you got mad that it forced your dad's funding to be cut."

"No, I wasn't that mad. Sure, I was angry that dad's funding was cut. But I don't blame Ban for defeating Mizel. It was necessary to get rid of him." Kalina shook her head. "But I can never forgive his dad and the other inventors who stole or scorned his work. That's why I entered Artemist."

"You wanted to use the core to show off your dad's inventions." Arata realized.

"Yes." Kalina half laughed, half cried. "I was waiting until people forgot about him and then use one of his creations in a public match like Artemist. Then when people are in awe of it, I will rub it in their faces that the one who created it is the one whom they scorned. I want them to regret ever making fun of my dad and give him the recognition he deserved."

Arata sighed and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "That's why you gave up the match. You already accomplished what you wanted. But it wasn't fair to Hana though."

"I'll apologize later but for now, I want to stay here. And you should go back and support your friends. I believe they would be at the block finals by now." Kalina lightly shoveled him.

"You're right. But are you going to come back and watch the final rounds?" He asked, getting up.

"Later." Kalina lightly pushed him in the direction of the stadium. "Have fun."

"Ok." Arata waved and ran back to the stadium in time to see that Hikaru's group had made it to the block finals and were trashing their opponents.

"I can't believe it! This is totally a one sided match! Last year's champion, Honshihara Hikaru, and his teammates are not giving their opponents an inch to move!"

"Gosh, I didn't think Hikaru and the others would have it easier than we did." Arata remarked as he returned to his seat.

"They got lucky." Muraku remarked. "Their opponents are no match for them unlike the Knights of Cupid."

"I still have goosebumps from that match." Reika shuddered.

"I think they're going for the win." Mia spoke up.

Everyone turned their gaze back down to the diorama where the three of them were finishing up with their Hissatsu Functions.

"Hissatsu Function!"

 _Attack Function_

 _Storm Sword_

 _Tri Cannon_

 _Hyper Energy Bomb_

Tri Cannon and Hyper Energy Bomb combined and were absorbed by Val Diver's Storm Sword which made the cyclone around it grow bigger. Their opponents could not move their LBX in time to dodge the cyclone, making them explode.

"And Hoshihara Hikaru manages to keep his title for now and is moving on to the final rounds with his team!"

"What was that?" Arata said in awe.

"It was something they have been perfecting since last Christmas." Muraku remarked with a smile. "They basically came up with the concept of increasing the power of one Hissatsu Functions using the power of two others. Storm Sword was the only physical attack so it was decided that it would be the Hissatsu Function that would be powered up."

"While Tri Cannon and Hyper Energy Bomb would be the power ups." Reika continued and grinned. "That's amazing."

"No doubt that either one of them will be tough in the final round." Arata said in agreement.

"The next round is beginning." Mia realized.

"There's no need to guess about this one. Asuka-san has this in the bag." Reika said confidently.

"I'm sure." Arata said mildly but then paled when he saw one of the players.

Following his gaze, Reika also paled. "Oh no."

"What?" Muraku said in surprise and looked around the stage but saw nothing suspicious. "What is it?"

"Clown!"

"Frog!"

Muraku and Mia blinked in surprise and looked back down at the stage. Sure enough, there was a team with two guys dressed as a clown and a frog who just so happened to be Asuka's opponents. The twins sweatdropped.

'They are afraid of clowns and frogs?'

"Let's go! Toadie!" Frog guy called, sending a toad like LBX into the diorama.

"Jackie-O, it's time to shine!" Clown guy called, sending in a box like LBX whose head was attached to it by a spring.

Arata paled further as his legs began to tremble. "Jack in the box!"

"I wanna leave!" Reika crawled on the floor, too scared to walk.

"What's going on?" Haruki asked when they came back and saw them like this.

"The frog guy and clown are scaring them." Muraku shook his head.

"Oh dear." Daimen slapped his head. "I forgot how scared they are of clowns and frogs or anything like them like jack in the boxes."

 _"All around the cobbler's house, the monkey chased the people. And after them in double haste, Pop! goes the weasel."_ The frog and clown sang as their LBX danced around Vampire Cat, irritating Asuka more and more by the minute.

"Ah!" Arata screamed and grabbed Reika's hand, dragging her off as he ran all the way out of the stadium.

"…I forgot. Arata absolutely fears this song. Whenever he hears it, he'll snap." Daimen sweatdropped.

"Why are they so afraid of that?" Mia wondered.

"I don't know. They can't explain it either." Daimen shrugged and took his seat. Down at the stage, Asuka's patience had snapped and in a blink of an eye, Vampire Cat stabbed its triton within Toadie before pulling it out and slicing Jackie-O with it.

"And Koujou Asuka wins!"

"Thank goodness." Daimen sighed in relief. "I don't think Arata and Reika would want to come back to the stadium as long as they are around."

"Someone should go and get them though." Hikaru pointed out.

"I'll do that." Daimen offered. "Let me know if she wins or not."


	10. Talking

**I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review!**

 **Sorry if it is short and filerish, but I don't want to start on the Artemist finals in this chapter. You can expect it in the next one.**

* * *

Kalina had gotten the biggest surprise of her life when Arata and Reika suddenly appeared at the harbor with very pale faces.

"What happened?" She asked, jumping up in worry.

"There was a clown in the stadium." Arata managed to gasp out in the mist of his trembling as he curled up into a ball beside her.

"And frog!" Reika wailed as she collapsed on the spot on the other side of Kalina. "I hate frogs!"

Kalina could only sweatdrop as Arata continued to mutter incoherent things about clowns, jack in the boxes, and a creepy song. Reika on the other hand was wailing, waving her hands around dramatically.

"Calm down you two." Kalina finally managed to get a word in before they got strange looks from passerby's. "There's no clown or frog out here. It's just us."

The two teens slowly calmed down but were still tensed. Kalina let out a soft smile and patted their shoulders. "I know why you are afraid of clowns and frogs, but you go to get over that fear. It's been more than ten years and you're still afraid of them."

"Lina-senpai, it's not something you'll forget easily." Arata said wearily. Not a lot of people knew about this but the root of their fear for clowns and frogs respectively were from the time they spent at the orphanages. Therefore, the fear was deeply ingrained in their minds along with the fear of the memories of the past.

Kalina casted a sympathetic smile at them and patted them on the shoulder. "It's hard, but it'll come eventually. I mean, I did overcome my arachnophobia."

"I didn't know that you are afraid of spiders."

Kalina scowled and spun around sharply. "'Overcome' being the key word. And how did you find me, Ban!?"

Ban shrugged and pointed at the back exit which was visible from where they were. "I came out of the back stadium to look for you and found you here."

Kalina groaned and pulled Arata and Reika up. "Come on, we have to get back now. You two still need to do your maintenance for your LBX before the finals."

"Um, Lina-senpai, Muraku will be the one playing in the finals." Arata suddenly told her once they got inside.

"What?" Kalina said in surprise, "but I thought it would be a fair chance for either three of you to get in."

"Pandora will take days to be repaired." Reika groaned. "The first Future Impact had damaged the core skeleton. It was lucky not to break over at that moment."

"And I'm not in to win it." Arata smiled sheepishly. He straightened up and gave Reika a look which she understood and nodded.

"I think Arata has something he wants to talk to you about, Lina-senpai." Reika grinned as she pulled out a battered Pandora out of her pocket. "I'll leave you two to talk and try to get started on Pandora's maintenance."

Kalina raised an eyebrow but soon figured it all out. She gave Arata a small grin. "I see. You entered Artemist because you wanted to ask me a favor. You never had the intention of wining unless you did what you wanted to do. So what's the favor?"

Arata sighed in relief that he didn't need to approach her on it awkwardly and proceeded to explain the details of the events starting from when the Gem of Wishes was stolen to the point where Yuko received the parchment from her father and cannot decipher it. Kalina had varying responses as the tale went on, from shock of the Gem of Wishes being stolen, horror that the Night Lurkers have returned, and grimness from the Element Stones.

"I wish someone updated me on the situation of Fantasy sooner." Kalina shook her head in distaste when Arata was done.

"From what I heard, none of the alumni from Fantasy were told unless they were teachers there or figured out themselves." Arata shrugged. "They wanted to keep it as quiet as possible because if all the alumni knew, they would mobilize and that would cause a lot of suspicious which we are not ready to face."

"I have to accept that excuse." Kalina gracefully accepted it. "But this parchment, it used an old language which dad was working on…Alright, give me some time to get all my materials and I'll head over to Fantasy by next week."

"Thanks a lot, Lina-senpai. We owe you a lot for this." Arata grinned.

"Just keep me updated on the rest of the tournament. I'm heading back to A-nation now." Kalina shrugged and headed back to the exit.

Arata's eyebrows shot up in surprise at that but decided to let it be. He figured that she wanted to avoid Ban and Hana for now so if anyone asked, he would just say she left.

* * *

Arata had arrived back at the waiting room to see Reika's eyes glued on the screen showing Block E's finals while working on Pandora at the same time.

"You're going to break the core box if you tighten that screw further." Arata spoke up as he came over to her side.

Reika gasped and quickly removed the screwdriver. She gave him a sheepish look and rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry. I got distracted. Maxus Trio is getting their butts beaten by a one-person team."

Arata raised an eyebrow in surprise and looked up at the screen. Sure enough, this person was single handedly defeating the only LBX left in the diorama. Based on the scorched marks here and there, Arata guessed that he made the other two LBX explode.

"Who is he?" He asked, leaning against the table.

"That's Kanai Makoto." Jin spoke up as he joined them. "He's one of the best players out there that can rival Asuka in skill."

"That's because he already is her self-proclaimed rival." Hana added in amusement.

Reika giggled at that. "Are they like Ban and Lina-senpai?"

"Something like that." Hana shrugged with a grin. "But the best part is that they are not a couple, but they sometimes act like it. Even Makoto has his moments."

"Ok…" Arata shifted his eyes back to the screen and let out a whistle as Makoto managed to finish off his opponent with a single blow. "He's good. How come we never heard about him?"

"Makoto is not one for huge tournaments despite being on Asuka's level. To be honest, I'm surprise to see him here." Jin shook his head. He glanced at Pandora in Reika's hands and frowned. "Is it badly damaged?"

"No duh." Reika rolled her eyes. "Core box needs a few parts replaced, the whole armor frame needs to be repaired or replaced, etc. I'm out of the tournament from here."

"Me too." Arata shrugged.

"But does Muraku know about that?" Jin frowned. "From what I gathered, he's expecting either one of you to go for the final round."

"I have no choice here." Reika raised her hands up in defense.

"I'll tell him." Arata shrugged. "But anyway, good luck in the finals."

"There you guys are!" Daimen sighed in relief as he came in. "I've been looking for you guys all over. The clown and frog guy are already out of the stadium. Security actually kicked them out when they tried to get to the stands. I guess you guys were not the only ones creeped out by them."

"Thank goodness." Arata let out a massive sigh of relieve and slid onto the ground.

"Don't tell me you're stopping now because your nerves are getting the best of you?" Daimen quirked.

Arata's face became red while Jin and Hana's eyes lightened up in understanding. Reika giggled behind her hand and nodded. "Yup, it's because of that."

"Oi!" Arata jumped up and wacked her on the head. "Don't go saying things like that."

"Ow!" Reika rubbed the part where Arata wacked. "But it's true. Remember that time we went to that fun fair and saw that clown? You were so jello after that that you couldn't even fight a match properly."

"And I could remember the time a frog jumped on your head in our fourth grade science class that you panicked and ran around, making a mess of the class, screaming on the top of your lungs even though the frog was long gone." Arata retorted.

"Come on, you two. Admit it, you two can't do anything well after being scared like that." Haruki remarked as he, Hikaru, Muraku and Mia came over. It was painfully clear that they had heard everything about their mishaps when they were younger.

Arata groaned and hit the table with his head. "Muraku, do us a favor and just agree to do the finals. I admit, I really don't have the heart to battle anymore."

Muraku sighed, having anticipated this even before the clown and frog guy got involved. "Alright, give me some time to do my maintenance."

"For our group, Hikaru is going on." Haruki spoke with Daimen nodding before Hikaru could protest. "You have the best chance out of all of us." Haruki added with a warning in his tone that Hikaru cannot protest it.

"What about you, Jin-san?" Reika asked. "Will you or Ban-san be participating in the finals?"

"We're not sure yet." Jin frowned as he looked around for Ban. "Ban left to find Kalina a while ago and he hasn't come back yet. If he doesn't come back on time, I will have to go."

"Oh, about that, Lina-senpai said that she's leaving." Arata scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

Hana slapped her forehead with her palm, muttering something about going off on her own again. "I'll go and find her and Ban and get Ban to come back while I have an important talk with Kalina."

'Good luck with that.' Arata silently thought, guessing that Kalina was now at the airport to go back to A-Nation. How she managed to handle travelling so quickly was beyond what he could understand since flight travels tired him out more than Daimen' teleportation or Reika's portals. But it could be just him since all of his other friends didn't have that kind of problem.

"Where's Asuka?" Jin wondered, noticing that she was not around.

"Don't know." Daimen shrugged. "She vanished the moment the Block E Finals ended."

'Oh boy.' Arata and Reika silently thought, having known now Asuka's rivalry with Makoto.


	11. Artemist-Royal Battle

**I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review!**

 **Sorry it took so long for me to post this chapter but recently, my motivation levels have been fluctuating since I have an assignment due this week and my interest in Inazuma Eleven rekindled. And I already have two stories for it: Kuriko's Fantasy Home for Special Children and True FFI V2. If you are interested, please check them out. PS. Kuriko's Fantasy Home for Special Children is almost a crossover with Danball Senki.**

* * *

"Welcome back everyone to the final stage of Artemist, the Battle Royal!" The MC greeted when the allotted time for players to repair their LBX was up. "Finalist from each block will compete in a single diorama and the last one standing will be the winner!"

The center stage rose from below, revealing the finalist who will be participating in the Battle Royal. The spotlight shone on Muraku first.

"From Block A, we have Houjou Muraku! He and his team had shown us some marvelous displays throughout the Block A preliminaries. And from Block B," The spotlight moved over to Jin. "We have Kaidou Jin, one of the favorites to win match!"

Jin frowned from where he was standing. So far, Hana had not been able to find Kalina despite going through the area around the stadium twice. And Ban came a little while back, saying that he was fine with him playing in the finals but refused to say why. So in the end, he found himself on the stage.

"And from Block C, we have Hoshihara Hikaru, last year's winner! Will he be able to defend his title!?"

Hikaru scoffed lightly and wished that they would just get on with it already. The spotlight and MC moved on, not caring about his thoughts at all. "And from Block D, we have Koujou Asuka!"

The cheers from the audience was defending as Asuka was one of the most popular LBX players in the LBX circuit. She grinned and waved at the crowd. But when her eyes landed on Makoto, she gained a disdained frown on her face. It was clear that she knew that Makoto was a huge threat since he is on her level in terms of skills. And as much as she didn't want to admit it, she could never fully concentrate whenever she was playing against him.

"Finally, we have Kanoi Makoto from Block E! He is said to be the dark horse of the match, surprisingly defeating the Maximus Trio! And now, let us begin the Battle Royal! Ready?"

"Magna Orthus!"

"Triton!"

"Val Diver!"

"Vampire Cat!"

Makoto gave a lazy grin and sent out his LBX. "Warrior!"

With all the LBX in position, the MC started the battle. Almost immediately, Vampire Cat charged at Warrior. As they exchanged blows, Hikaru and Muraku exchanged nods, and had Val Diver and Magna Orthus attack Triton. Jin smirked when he realized what they were aiming for as he blocked their attacks with Triton's anchor.

"I see. You're planning on taking out the current biggest threat which is me since Asuka and Makoto are preoccupied with each other."

"We know that you can be equally dangerous as Asuka-san. But for now, we will let Kanoi-san take care of her." Hikaru muttered under his breath.

"It seems like the players have found their opponents!" The MC remarked. "But what will happen after that, I cannot tell!"

Asuka grew frustrated as all of Vampire Cat's attacks were avoided by Warrior. It was out of her character to be so flustered but Makoto always had that effect on her. It was getting on her nerves, especially since he would not attack back no matter how many opportunities he got.

"Oi! If you're going to fight, fight properly!" She yelled at Makoto.

"And what if I said that I don't want to." Makoto said cheekily. Before Asuka could react, Warrior had switched opponents from Vampire Cat to Magna Orthus, surprising Muraku and Hikaru. But Jin took this opportunity and had Triton team up with Warrior to put pressure on Magna Orthus and Val Diver.

"Never let down your guard in a battle royal." Jin advised them as Triton swung its anchor down on Val Diver, causing a lot of damage on it. Hikaru gritted his teeth and had Val Diver quickly jumped back but had to deflect a blow from Vampire Cat.

"Don't forget about me." Asuka smirked. Her earlier rivalry with Makoto forgotten and she was willing to take on Hikaru now.

"I forgot how hard battle royals are." Hikaru muttered under his breath. Val Diver managed to get some cover and he eyed the battle ground. Vampire Cat was now sparing with Triton and over with Magna Orthus. His eyes became wide when he saw it cut off one of Warrior's legs.

"Hissatsu Function!"

 _Attack Function_

 _Catastrophe Drive_

The devastating Hissatsu Function had left Warrior barely standing but undefeated.

"Impressive." Makoto smirked. "But that doesn't mean I'm down for the count."

"I got you!" Asuka yelled as Vampire Cat speared through Warrior, making it break over.

"And Block E's Kanoi Makoto is the first one down!"

"That doesn't count." Makoto remarked lazily to Asuka. "You merely took advantage of someone else's weakness."

"At least I lasted longer than you." Asuka retorted.

"Whatever, Asuki."

A vein twitched on Asuka's forehead. "It's Asuka!"

"Like I said, whatever~" Makoto sang as he hopped off the stage.

"Does this happen every time?" Reika wondered with a deadpanned expression.

"Every time." Hana nodded with a sigh, having returned in time to see the beginning of the match.

"But, all the players here are no pushovers. For each and every one of them are strong in their own way." Arata pointed out.

"Indeed." Hana nodded at that.

Down at the diorama, Triton had managed to defeat Vampire Cat when it was preoccupied by Val Diver and Magna Orthus, both having sustained a lot of damage fighting it.

Asuka merely smirked at her defeat and turned to Jin. "You have been holding back on us all this time."

Jin shrugged and went back to having Triton battle the other remaining two LBX. "Show me what you got.

Again, Hikaru and Muraku share nods, knowing that they could not afford to take on him individually. Magna Orthus made the first move and shot forward with the intention of impaling Triton with its sword but Jin smirked and moved out of the way and arched Triton's back as Val Diver tried to slash it with its katana.

"Jin-san's plays are really impressive. Is this his true strength when his wrist is not holding him back?" Reika mused in amazement.

"I believe so." Arata nodded. "But, Muraku and Hikaru are no pushovers either. They're giving their all for it too."

"But even so, there can only be one victor." Haruki frowned. "As much as I hate to say it, only one of them can be left standing. But, that doesn't mean that the other two will have anything to regret about. They are all giving their all, so there is no room for regret."

"I agree." Daimen grinned.

"Look!" Hana suddenly exclaimed, pointing down at the stage where Val Diver was defeated by Triton's Ocean Blast but was quickly avenged when Magna Orthus quickly followed it up with Catastrophe Drive, ultimately making Triton break over.

"And there we have it!" The MC roared. "The end of this heated battle leaves Houjou Muraku the winner of this year's Artemist tournament!"

"He won." Mia said in amazement, having been quiet until now. She turned to Arata with a huge grin. "That was an amazing battle. I really want to play LBX."

Arata, Daimen and Reika were visibly shocked by this admission not because it was the most expressive statement Mia had said since she woke up but rather because they remembered Mia's initial dislike of LBX. It was only after a lot of persuasion on their part that Mia finally agreed to try it out. The reason why she disliked LBX was unknown to them except to Maya but they had an idea that it had something to do with Muraku since he was getting well known in the junior LBX circuit of LA at that time.

"Um, if you're sure, we could help you get an LBX that would suit you." Arata said awkwardly.

Mia and the others eyed them curiously but they did not press it for Muraku was receiving the price so they paid attention to that.

"Congratulations, Muraku." Hikaru smiled at him once he received the price.

Muraku frowned at that. "Hikaru…"

"It's alright." Hikaru reassured him. "There will always be plenty of opportunities to have a rematch with you at school. Besides, you won, fair and square. I'm starting to understand that it is through our losses that we can become stronger."

"You are not the only one in that aspect." Muraku finally managed to smile.

"Muraku. Hikaru." Jin called as he approached them.

"Jin-san." Both he and Hikaru straightened up.

Jin eyed them for a moment and broke out a small smile. "I have to congratulate the both of you. It is thanks to your teamwork that you managed to defeat me despite the circumstances. I cannot say that I am not impressed by that."

"Thank you, Jin-san." Muraku bowed lightly.

"So are you going back to Kamui Island after this?" Jin inquired.

"No." Hikaru shook his head. "Daimen managed to put us up with his family for a few days to have a good look at the city, his words, not mine."

"I see. Have fun then." Jin nodded and moved over to Hana so that they can talk. In the meantime, Arata and the rest of the gang came over to them.

"Great match guys." Arata smiled at them. "It was an intense match."

"Yup." Daimen nodded in agreement. "Anyway, pack up your things and meet me at the entrance in fifteen minutes. Our ride to my parents' house will be here soon."

Everyone nodded and went to gather their things. Reika lingered back however to speak with Jin.

"I take it that you will be sticking with Arata for a long while." He said when she managed to get him to private spot.

Reika rubbed the back of her head sheepishly at that. "Yeah…there are complicated matters to take care of regarding the future of Fantasy."

"I understand. Promise that you'll stay safe." Jin nodded understanding and hugged her tightly.

"Promise." Reika nodded as she returned the hug.


	12. Debut of the Grim Lurkers

**I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review!**

* * *

Just a few days after the Artemist tournament, Arata sighed out of tiredness. Just one night after staying at Daimen's parents' house, he had proposed to travel all the way into the desert just to visit Ayer's Rock.

He did not understand why, but he felt something drawing him there. The pull was too strong to resist so he had agreed to go and pulled Reika with him. Mia also wanted to come so Muraku automatically agreed to come as well. Hikaru and Haruki took some persuasion but they eventually agreed to come as well.

And so, they had taken a plane over to the reserve park Ayers Rock was located at and then a van to the base of the rock. All in all, Arata did not get a full night's rest each day due to the pressing pull that he is feeling and because he could sleep well in the sleeping bags they were using.

Even so, he did enjoy the sights of the Australian desert and he can tell that his other companions shared the same sentiments.

"And here we are!" Daimen declared as the van came to a halt at the base. They hopped off after thanking the driver and took in the view. "Ayers Rock, also known as Uluru."

"Heh." Reika scanned it up and down before shifting her gaze onto the guidebook in her hands. "It says here that this place is a special place to the Aboriginals and climbing the rock is forbidden."

"Pity, but there are other things we can do." Daimen shrugged.

"Like what?" Muraku raised an eyebrow.

"Documenting the flora and fauna ecosystem for our science project." Daimen said matter-of-factly. "The one that is due by the time we get back."

"Don't tell me you made us come all the way here for your project." Arata sighed.

"Nope." Daimen shook his head cheerfully. "This is just something to do to pass time until evening. That's when we can get the best shots of the rock."

"Seriously?" Reika muttered under her breath. Muraku, Hikaru and Haruki sported a similar exasperated look as she did but they had to agree that they had to get started on the project then.

"I'll be looking around if you need me." Arata told them before heading off in another direction.

"I'll go with him." Reika offered before Muraku could ask her to.

They walked around Uluru for a few minutes until they were out of earshot of their friends or any tourist.

"So, what's eating you?" Reika suddenly asked.

"Hm?" Arata cocked his head innocently.

"Don't play dumb." Reika rolled her eyes. "I can tell that you're distracted by something. Whenever that happens, something important is going to happen and you know it."

Arata eyed her with a small smile and nodded. "You know me too well. I don't know how to explain it, but I've been feeling a strange pull to Ayers Rock. It's like something is calling me here."

"Did you ask Oracle about it?" Reika asked curiously. She was one of the few people who knew about Oracle's random visits to Arata's mind during the time they were studying in Kamui Daimon.

"No." Arata shook his head. "I was never able to contact her. She is the one who contacts me. And she did not appear to me again after our battle with the World Sabers. I think her conscious is connected to the Gem of Wishes. Since it is badly drained, I don't think she can talk to me for a long time until we find the Element Stones."

"Oh." Reika hummed. "But Lina-senpai is going to decipher the document Master Kuriko gave Yuko-nee, so we can start looking for them soon."

"Yeah." Arata nodded but then became worried. "Reika, do you think that Lina-senpai has changed in some ways since she graduated from Fantasy?"

Reika looked at him in surprise. "I thought I was the only one who thought that. But, yes, I think so too." She began to think back to the Artemist tournament. "I don't know why, but she seems more closed off now. Did you get anything off her emotions?"

"Nothing much. Like you said, she's more closed off now, so I could not gather much." Arata shook his head. "I don't want to pry into her private life, but I can tell that she's carrying a lot of hurt and conflict in her. She lost her father not too long ago and now, she's in a relationship with Ban-san whose father hurt hers in several ways."

"But, I don't really want to believe that Ban-san's father is that cruel to her family. From what I gathered from Jin-san and his friends during the times I met them, they have nothing but respect for him." Reika said thoughtfully.

"I know, which is why, sooner or later, we are going to pay a visit to Tiny Orbit again and get the full story from Professor Yamano." Arata said firmly. "And until then, I will reserve my judgement of Professor Yamano's character."

"I agree." Reika nodded. "So, when we get back to Japan, we're going to Tiny Orbit, right?"

"Yes. You'll need to call Jin-san and ask him for Ban-san's number so that we can ask him to let us meet his father." Arata said thoughtfully. "I think it's about time they understand Lina-senpai's reasons for her bitterness. This cannot go on any longer."

"I can do that."

They continued walking for a little while longer until the sun was beginning to set.

"We should get back now. I'm sure Daimen would want us back with them for the photo session." Arata said mildly as they turned around to go back to the spot they left them.

Reika giggled and glanced back at Uluru. "You know, when they sun is setting, the rock feels like it's on fire."

Arata glanced at the rock as well and nodded in agreement. "It sure does."

However, they have not taken a few steps further before Night Lurker's appeared suddenly around them. The tourist who were also around the area started screaming and ran away but the Night Lurkers paid no mind to them. Instead, their focus was on the two Valorites in front of them.

"The Night Lurkers." Arata hissed as he and Reika quickly fell into stance and began to fight against them.

"What are they doing here?!" Reika wondered as she sent some of them flying with a stream of water.

"I don't know, but we have to regroup with Daimen and Muraku. There's too many of them!" Arata grunted and pulled her along as they ran away, blocking the Night Lurkers' attacks as they did so. However, they soon collided into Daimen with the rest of the group right on his tail.

"Night Lurkers/Rouge LBX!" Arata and Daimen yelled at the same time. "What?!"

"Night Lurkers are coming this way!" Reika panted.

"But there are LBX going out of control coming this way as well!" Daimen waved his hands frantically.

"Split up!" Arata yelled, seeing Mia confused of what they are saying. "Reika and I will take them up to the summit, you and the rest handle the rouge LBX!"

"Right!" Daimen, Hikaru, Haruki and Muraku nodded, whipping out their LBX and CCM. Reika lightly stomped her feet on the ground, causing a geyser to fly out from the ground in between them and Daimen, Muraku and Mia, obstructing their vision. She then threw a crystal on the ground, opening a portal which brought them and the Night Lurkers to the summit.

Back with Daimen's side, the rouge LBX were now visible. Much to everyone's surprise and shock, the LBX were Gordon and Calipers, LBXs which were used by the former students of Ezeldarm and the World Sabers.

"Why are these LBX the one attacking? I thought we destroyed all of them!" Daimen exclaimed as they hid behind a cliff for cover.

"I don't know!" Haruki shot back. "But we have to stop them."

"Mia, are you alright?" Muraku asked his sister worriedly when he saw how pale she became.

'I've seen those LBX before. I know it.' Mia silently thought, fear creeping in her eyes. 'It was a scary situation…I cannot remember what…'

"Mia, calm down!" Muraku tried to comfort her while controlling his LBX at the same time. He inwardly cursed the rouge LBX, realizing that they were the source of her panic attack.

"Hissatsu Function!" All of them called.

 _Attack Function_

 _Tri-Cannon_

 _Storm Sword_

 _Hyper Energy Bomb_

 _Catastrophe Drive_

The hissatsu functions managed to clear a large portion of the rouge LBX but there were still more coming.

'Oh man, Arata, Reika, I hope that you are having better luck than us. We might need your help here after all.' Daimen thought with a grimace.

* * *

Meanwhile, up on Uluru's summit, Arata and Reika had summoned out their respective weapons and had defeated half of the Night Lurkers.

"Reika, keep your footing!" Arata called at her when he saw that she was getting closer to the edge. It did not help that the winds were strong up there, making them loose their balance on more than one occasion.

"I'm trying!" Reika yelled back. But even so, she was still sliding closer to the edge.

"Reika!" Arata flipped in the air and landed beside her. "Come on, we have to get away from the edge." He grabbed her hand and they flipped in the air, landing a good distance away from the edge. But the moment Arata's feet touched the ground, it crumbled under him.

"Arata!" Reika tried to grab his hand but she missed and the ground re-patched itself. "What-!?"

She was cut off from her shock when the Night Lurkers still continued their attack. She quickly blocked their attacks and twirled her Aqua Tessens around, sending wave after wave of water at the Night Lurkers who disintegrated.

"Arata!" Reika ran back to the spot where he disappeared at but the ground was well patched up and would not reopen. Desperately, she pulled out her CCM to call Daimen. "Daimen! Arata's gone! The ground opened up and he fell in."

 _"What!?"_ Daimen cried in shock. _"How did this happen?"_

"I don't know, but I need you to come up here and help!"

 _"I can't. We're being overrun by the LBX! We could use some help here!"_

Reika gritted her teeth but got up. "I got it. I'm coming down now. We just have to trust himto be alright."

She put away her CCM and was about to create a portal when she was blow off her feet. As she tried to push herself up, she was shocked by the creature in front of her. It was covered in red ooze and its black eyes were barely seen under the ooze. Long claws sprouted out of its hands and feet.

"What? You never seen a Grim Lurker before?" The being before her taunted. "And here I thought you would be a challenge. But in the end you're only a puny Valorite."

Tears stung Reika's eyes at the Grim Lurker's words. But she refused to let it see them and quickly pushed herself up. Even she knew that she had to back off or she will be killed. She quickly raised one of her tessens and flapped it down hard, creating a massive wave of water to collide down on the Grim Lurker. It hissed in pain and shot out red ooze from its hand, evaporating the wave. But Reika was nowhere to be found.

"Hmp, the rat ran away. No matter. I can sense it as well as three more down at the base." The Grim Lurker mused to itself and grinned evilly. "No matter. I will take my time getting down there. My rats cannot escape and I will enjoy their fear before I consume them."

* * *

"Ah!" Reika let out a cry of pain as she landed awkwardly behind Daimen's group.

"Reika!?" Daimen let out in surprise, momentarily taking his attention off his LBX. Instead of replying, Reika threw her Aqua Tessens at the rouge LBXs, taking all of them out. She momentarily took note of the fact that Mia was unconscious and Muraku was guarding her.

"We need to run. Now!" Reika grunted as she came over to the shocked group.

"But why?" Haruki asked, not understanding her panic. "And what about Arata?"

"There's something coming down here that is too strong for any of us to defeat it!" Reika ignored his last question. Unfortunately, before she could open up a crystal for them to escape in, red ooze came flying in their direction so Reika had to open up a different portal to redirect them back at the source instead.

But the shockwave knocked her off her feet, causing her to crash into Haruki and Hikaru and in turn, they crashed into the wall, knocking out all of them at once.

"Reika! Hikaru! Haruki!"

"Daimen!" Muraku called and summoned out tendrils of shadows which knocked away more ooze but the ooze burned the shadows. This made Muraku flinch as the shadows withdrew.

"So you rats can fight. That's fine, it'll make my meal tastier!" The Grim Lurker bellowed and shot more ooze. This time, Daimen's eyes glowed white as the ooze hit empty air.

"Daimen?" Muraku looked at him questioningly.

"Solified air." Daimen said in a strained voice. "I can only take so much before it breaks. Help me reinforce it until Arata comes back from wherever he is."

Muraku nodded and placed his hand on the invisible barrier, letting his energy flow through the barrier to strengthen it. But both of them knew that this is only a temporary boost and will not last long. But even so, they resolved themselves to hold their ground until their missing friend came back.


	13. Trial of the Fire Ruby

**I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review!**

* * *

 _"Wake up, Fire Child."_

Arata groaned and slowly opened his eyes. As the voice registered in his head, he shot up and looked around. "Oracle?"

"No, I am not her. But I was informed by her of your arrival."

"Who are you?" Arata demanded as he looked around, not seeing anyone. "And where am I?"

"Calm down, Fire Child." A voice called out of nowhere. "All will be revealed. Did you not know that this is the hiding place of the Fire Ruby when you came here?"

"The Fire Ruby?" Arata frowned, not knowing what the person was talking about. "What is it?"

The shadows shifted as a person wearing red robes and a hood covering his face stepped out of the shadows. He tilted his head curiously at him. "The Fire Ruby is one of the ten Element Stones you seek. Tell me, when you first came here, did you not have the intention of seeking it?"

Arata stared at the person in surprise at the revelation that the Fire Ruby was one of the Element Stones. "No, I mean, we were going to look for it. But I did not know that the Fire Ruby is here."

"Ah, that explains it." The person stroked his beard. "But where are my manners? I am the guardian of the Fire Ruby." He stepped aside and flicked his wrist under his robes. Torches hanging all over the room instantly became alight. In the place where the guardian was standing is a pedestal holding the red gem with a flame inside it.

Arata gasped as the gem glowed red and the pull became too intense to resist. The guardian watched him carefully and nodded. "As I suspected, the Fire Ruby has chosen you to be its next wielder. It was the Fire Ruby that brought you to this place. With that cleared up, come with me. There is no time to be wasted."

"What do you mean?" Arata snapped out of his daze and threw the guardian a confused look.

"Your friends are in danger by the Grim Lurker in the real dimension. Alas, the only way you can save them is to prove yourself worthy to me. I cannot simply give it to you despite what the Fire Ruby has chosen. I have to abide by the rules set in place to protect it." The guardian told him. He waved his hand, creating an image, showing Arata of the battle outside.

Arata gasped when he saw the Grim Lurker and that Daimen and Muraku were barely holding up the barrier. Reika was only stirring up from being knocked out and quickly opened a portal to send Hikaru, Haruki and Mia to safety before helping Muraku and Daimen strengthen the barrier.

"I have to help them!"

"In due time Fire Child." The guardian waved his hand, opening a door to the side of the wall. "But first, prove yourself worthy."

He led a reluctant Arata through the door and Arata had to do a double take. They were on top of a volcano. There was lava flowing everywhere down the mountain and barely any place which was not covered by it.

"What are we doing here?" Arata asked in a small voice.

There was a hint of amusement in the Guardian's voice as he spoke. "I am sure that you would know about this despite not knowing the locations of the Element Stones. Each Stone represents a virtue. And with every selection of a wielder, the Stones will choose the one who is strong in that virtue. I, the Guardian of the Fire Ruby, will test your 'courage' to see if you are worthy of wielding the Fire Ruby."

Arata took in a deep breath. He had to do this. Even if he rejected the test in favor of helping his friends, he knew that he would not last against the Grim Lurker without the Fire Rube. So he nodded his head. "I'll take the test."

The guardian nodded in approval. "Very well. This is the test."

He materialized his staff out of nowhere and tapped it on the ground. Two parts of the ground lighted up in flames and were lifted out. "You will take one of the rocks and race against me down the mountain. If you can beat me, you may take the Fire Ruby with you."

Arata casted him an incredulous look. It was almost impossible for the rocks to last against the lava all the way down the mountain. But he was not going to voice this out against the Guardian. Even so, he was forming an idea of how to keep the lava from melting the rock. He stepped onto the first one and concentrated on lifting it with his telekinesis. The Guardian raised an eyebrow under his hood at that.

"Unexpected, but not forbidden." He stepped onto his rock and lifted it up with heat instead. "The path you wish to take down will not matter as long as you reach the bottom. But you can only travel through the lava."

That made things difficult, but thankfully, he has his plan ready. He took in a deep breath but centered on being calm. It would not do to let his panic and worry for his friends interfere with his concentration with the race.

"Ready…set…Go!"

The Guardian immediately took off while it took Arata a while to catch up. He let out a huff and focused on surrounding the rock with flames without actually touching it while lifting the rock with his telekinesis. It was hard at first but once he had the grasp of it, he managed to get the rock moving without letting the lava touch the rock thanks to the flames while using it to push on with his telekinesis.

"Go!" Arata pushed, slowly catching up to the Guardian.

The Guardian smirked as he watched him. It was creative and ingenious. But that was not the true test. Unexpectedly, he pushed faster and used the only lava path ahead of them to turn around a large rock. Arata was forced to follow him due to it being the only lava path around him.

But upon turning, his eyes caught something white and moving. They became wide when he realized that it was a small rabbit right in the path of a lava path!

"Oh no!" Without a second thought, he jumped off the rock and landed in front of the rabbit. Lighting up his hands on fire, he created streams of fire to push the lava back. But his power was not strong enough to stop it, only slow it down.

Arata gritted his teeth as he felt himself being drained quickly from the effort of slowing down the lava. Unbeknown to him, the rabbit was watching him closely.

When Arata's strength finally gave out and he could no longer stop the lava, he collapsed on his knees, unable to support himself anymore. He squeezed his eyes shut to brace himself for the inevitable doom. Behind him, the rabbit closed its eyes and transformed into the Guardian.

"You have passed the test, Fire Child." The Guardian said softly and snapped his fingers. Instantly, he and Arata were teleported back to the main chambers. Arata slowly opened his eyes and he whipped around to face the Guardian.

"What…You were the rabbit!" He cried out in realization.

"Indeed." The Guardian chuckled. "That was the real test to confirm that you are worthy of being selected to wield the Fire Ruby. And you have passed."

"But…"

"The moment you decided to forfeit the race in order to save an insignificant animal despite knowing that you will fail, you have shown courage. Courage which the Fire Ruby is seeking." The Guardian explained and removed the Fire Ruby from the pedestal. "Bring out your weapon."

Arata frowned in confusion but did as told, summoning out his Fire Staff. The Guardian extended his hand and the Fire Ruby flew towards the fire top of the staff. It glowed and imbedded itself inside the fire top.

"Wow." Arata lowered his staff to have a closer look at it. The Fire Ruby was like any other ruby but it had a flame dancing inside it and he felt the power coming from it.

"It's time for you to go and save your friends." The Guardian reminded him and with a wave of his hand, a hole appeared on the ground before him. "Use the power of the Fire Ruby wisely and remember why it chose you."

"I will. Thank you." Arata nodded and jumped down into the hole.

* * *

Outside Uluru, things were going badly for the trio who were trying their best to hold the barrier but it was slowly chipping away. The Grim Lurker on the other hand was barely fazed and continued throwing corrosive ooze at the barrier.

"Is that all you got?" The Grim Lurker sneered. "I was hoping for more of a fight from my meal."

The three were gasping heavily and were relying on sheer willpower to stand despite their apparent exhaustion. At this point, they could barely hold up the barrier.

"We need to get out of here." Daimen said hoarsely to his two companions. "Reika…?"

"No, I don't think I can create another portal anymore. I'm spent." She gasped out. "What we need is Arata and who knows where he is!?"

"Hah! Even if your friend was here, I'll defeat him and eat him up like the pathetic Valorite he is!" The Grim Lurker sneered with an evil laugh.

"Think again!"

The Grim Lurker's head shot up at the voice only to be met with flames raining down on it. It cried out in pain as its own ooze burst into flames and burned it from the inside out.

"Oh, now he chooses to show up." Reika muttered as she, Muraku and Daimen collapsed in relief and allowed the barrier to collapse.

"It was not easy. I had to race down a volcano and slow down lava all so that I can obtain this." Arata grunted, holding up his Fire Staff for them to see.

"The Fire Ruby!?" The Grim Lurker cried out in shock, recognizing said gem imbedded in the top of the staff.

"What…you know what? Never mind." Reika muttered, shaking her head. "It's not out of the ordinary of Arata's mysterious tendency to end up in situations like this."

"Agreed." Daimen mumbled as he fought to keep his eyes open. Creating the barrier in the first place had drained a lot of energy out of him and it was only because Muraku and Reika were helping him hold it up that it did not collapse earlier. Even Muraku and Reika could not stay conscious for long but the curiosity of how Arata will fare against the Grim Lurker with the Fire Ruby overrode that for the time being.

"You will pay for that!" The Grim Lurker roared when it managed to douse the flames.

"We shall see." Arata said in a calm yet deadly tone. Using his staff, he batted away the balls of ooze sent his way back at the Grim Lurker. He ignited a fireball and threw it at one of the ooze balls and it exploded, sending the Grim Lurker skidding back.

"I'm not done yet!"

"Funny, I was thinking the opposite." Arata let out a predatory smirk which those who knew him very well knew that it meant a very painful session for the one on the receiving end of his wrath. Arata slid on the ground to get close to the Grim Lurker while avoiding the incoming ooze. He used the staff's hidden dagger to stab the Grim Lurker's underside. It howled in pain for the dagger became ignited by the Fire Ruby. The Grim Lurker's shrieks were the last Arata heard from it as he ran back to the group to avoid the explosion that was sure to come.

"Everyone get down!"

Reika let out a tired sigh and mustered the last of her strength to create a bubble which absorbed most of the heat and impact of the explosion. When it was over, she tiredly collapsed.

"Thanks Reika." Muraku managed to get out before he and Daimen also slumped back against the mountain wall unconscious.

Arata wordlessly retrieved the dagger and Fire Ruby. He was too tired to even help them get away. He was already badly exhausted from the test and now he was positively drained. He collapsed beside Daimen, holding Reika close to him. Unable to remain awake anymore, he figured he would rest first before trying to get them back to wherever Reika sent off Hikaru, Haruki and Mia to. The last thing he remembered before allowing his tiredness to overcome him was engines roaring in the distant.


	14. Cover Story

**I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review!**

* * *

 _"All the rouge LBXs are gone!"_

 _"Wait, there's someone over there!"_

 _"Jin, they are…"_

 _"I know. Are they hurt?"_

 _"No…let's bring them to the hospital and let papa know."_

* * *

 _"What!?"_

Jin flinched as he pulled his CCM away from his ear to prevent it from damaging his ear drums. He waited for a moment until he was sure that Yuko would not yell at him again and continued, "As I was saying, Arata and the others are in the hospital now because they got caught up in a rouge LBXs attack which we are linking to the World Sabers."

 _"And you're telling me this because?"_ Yuko asked suspiciously.

"I have a feeling that it is more than that." Jin whispered as he ducked into the bathroom and locked himself in one of the stalls to continue the call before one of his friends saw him. "Some witness reported that there were monsters in that area."

There was a sharp intake of breath from the other side of the line. _"And?"_

"Nothing to connect them to the 'monsters' but enough to make certain people suspicious." Jin told her carefully. "But I think it is best that you and Muraku's father come over now."

There was a bit of silence on the line and Jin wondered if Yuko was still there. Suddenly, she spoke. _"I'll be there as soon as I can. I might bring Muraku and Mia's father as well. Until then, please hold off any suspicion until my contacts can help me settle this matter."_

"Thank you." He hesitated for a while. "And there is one more thing. It's about Seredy…"

* * *

It took him a while to finish up the call. By the end of it, he was exhausted. As soon as he left the bathroom, Hana ran over to him.

"Jin, where were you? I was trying to find you but no one had seen you for a while."

"Sorry, I had to make a call." Jin told her truthfully as he grasped her hand and began walking to the wards where Reika and the others were. Arata was however in a separate ward due to the fact he strangely suffered extreme exhaustion while Reika, Daimen and Muraku only had normal exhaustion and a few injuries. Haruki, Hikaru and Mia were found not too far away from Uluru unconscious as well. They were treated for several bruises but nothing major. However, neither of them could provide any useful information other than the fact that the rouge LBX were World Sabers LBX and Mia could not even recall anything, not that he blamed her since she's already in shock badly.

Hana eyed him for a moment but dropped it since he was not lying. "I wanted to find you because Reika and her friends woke up already."

Jin paused in his stride. "What about Arata?"

"Not yet." Hana told him with a shake of her head. "I don't know what happened to them that made them this exhausted because it is obviously not LBX battling, even on a large scale that happened at Uluru. But I'm not going to push it. However, Director Kaios might. So if you need to talk to them before he does, I suggest that you do it now before he gets here. He's flying in tonight."

"Thanks Hana." Jin pecked her on the cheek and rushed off to Reika's ward. Said girl was startled when he came in but relaxed when she realized it was only her brother. Jin closed in on her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I did three rounds around Mount Heiwa." She said with a light sigh. "How's everyone?"

"Passed out from exhaustion and various cuts and bruises for you, Daimen and Muraku. They also woke up already from what Hana told me. Haruki, Hikaru and Mia were treated for bruises and a headache for the latter." He paused and hesitated before continuing. "And Arata has extreme exhaustion."

Reika blinked but sighed in exasperation as she flopped back against her bed. "Typical Arata. Goes off being the hero and ends up worrying us when he gets hurt or something."

Jin cracked a smile. "I gathered so." His mood became somber. "I don't want to worry you and the others, but Director Kaios is flying in to investigate both the rouge LBX and the monsters. He holds significant suspicion regarding the events at Uluru and you guys."

Reika stilled at the mention of that. "I see."

"I also called Yuko. She and Muraku's father will be coming here as soon as they can. But I don't know when that will be. So you have to provide him with a cover story."

Reika let out a breath. "I'll talk with the others about it. Thanks for the heads up."

Jin nodded and headed out of the door. "I'll be back later to check on you after I discuss somethings with my friends. You can check on Daimen and the others in the next room. Haruki, Hikaru and Mia are also there, last I check."

"Alright." Reika huffed. As soon as Jin closed the door behind him, she threw off the blanket and peaked out the door. Satisfied that no one was around, she tiptoed to the next room and barged inside without knocking.

"Reika!" Daimen jumped from his position of sneaking out of his bed while the others looked slightly surprised.

"Glad to see you guys are alright." She breath out in relief and took a seat on the empty spot on the couch. "Arata is still knocked out though."

"What happened to him?" Mia asked worriedly.

"He'll be fine. He's still 'sleeping'." Reika reassured her. "I heard from Jin-san that you don't remember much about what happened. Are you alright?"

"Just a headache." Mia rubbed her temples in frustration. "I-I don't know why, but when I saw those LBX, I just knew that I've seen them before. And it was not a good feeling."

Either she was oblivious to how the temperature of the room dropped or is ignoring it. She grasped Reika's hand. "Do you know what happened? Why I felt like that?"

Reika let out a sharp intake of breath and glanced at Muraku who subtly shook his head.

"It's a long story." Reika merely stated. "Anyway, as to what happened at Uluru, after those rouge LBX appeared, you fainted while we were fighting them off. Somehow, you, Hikaru and Haruki got separated from us. And then some monsters appeared. I think we got exhausted from running away from them while fending off the rouge LBX. And Arata has not been resting well since Artemist so that's why he's still out. Anyway, the monsters somehow disappeared and we managed to defeat the last of the rouge LBX before we fainted."

Picking up on what Reika was doing, Haruki continued. "And then I think while we were running away, I think the remaining rouge LBX went to them and we passed out from the heat."

"But it was evening." Mia said in puzzlement. "It was not as hot as that afternoon."

"But we were out in the heat the whole day." Daimen quickly covered up. "So it's natural that all of us got tired out quickly. I'm just surprise that we did not get heat exhaustion."

Mia clearly did not buy it but she dare not push it further. She was beginning to realize that they were hiding something from her and it hurt. She quietly got up. "I'm going to get something to drink."

"Mia…" Muraku started to get up to go with her but she shook her head.

"You obviously have more to say but it cannot be around me. I get it."

Muraku and Reika winced while Daimen, Haruki and Hikaru looked away. With a forceful tug, she slammed the door shut behind her.

"I feel bad but we can't throw everything back on her until otou-san says so." Muraku said softly.

"Don't worry, we get it." Reika told him reassuringly. She clapped her hands together. "So, our cover story will be what we told Mia just now. If they ask for more details, say that that's all that happened."

"Alright."

They continued to talk about what actually happened and touched up the cover story before retreating back into their respective rooms before the nurses kicked them out.

* * *

Later that night, Reika, Daimen and Muraku had escaped their hospital rooms and gathered at Arata's while waiting for him to wake up.

"Oh Arata, why do you always need to play the hero." Reika sighed as she ran a hand down his cheek.

"That's him Reika." Daimen cracked a smile with Muraku. "He'll do anything to keep the ones close to him safe."

"But at what cost?" Reika sighed in frustration. "You just don't get it. Arata might be fine with throwing his life away for the sake of others, but I am not. He was not this bad. At least not before Maddie…"

She clamped her mouth shut as Daimen lowered his head. Muraku bit his lip when he realized what she was saying. He did not know much about Maddie other than she was Arata's former girlfriend and she is dead.

"Hey, at least he's still here." Daimen tried to comfort her. In an attempt to change the subject, he turned to Muraku. "So, I heard that you are ready to take the Aviane trials. Did Master Houjou talk to you about it?"

"He said that he'll talk about it after Artemist." Muraku shrugged. "Anything I should expect from it?"

"Don't expect anything."

Muraku raised an eyebrow in confusion. This made Reika and Daimen laugh, softly though to not alert the nurses that they were in there.

"That was the advice everyone got before they took their Aviane Trials. It made not make any sense now, but it will when the time is right." Reika smirked.

"And by the time it makes sense, you'll be either disappointed or happy with your Aviane."

Almost everyone in the room jumped and jerked their heads around the room, looking for the speaker. Muraku relaxed when he spotted a swirling shadow in front of the window.

"Otou-san, please don't scare us like that." He sighed.

Daimen and Reika sagged in relief as Master Houjou and Yuko came out of the shadow. Yuko had a mildly amused look while Master Houjou crossed his arms across his chest seriously.

"How did you get here so quickly?" Reika asked after sharing a hug with her big sister.

"Master Houjou's shadows." Yuko shrugged. She shifted to the bed and grasped Arata's hand. "How is he?"

"He still hasn't woken up yet." Daimen shook his head.

"What exactly happened? Jin was not very descriptive of the events at Uluru."

"That's because he was not there." Reika collapsed in another chair. She clasped her hands together tightly. "We were attacked not only by the Night Lurkers, but a Grim Lurker as well."

Yuko instantly turned pale while Master Houjou gritted his teeth. Yuko took a deep breath. "What happened there?"

"We don't know much. Arata disappeared on top of Uluru and then…the Grim Lurker appeared." Reika shuddered at the memory.

"How did you defeat it?" Master Houjou frowned.

"We didn't." Muraku shook his head. "Arata did."

"He had something in his staff that the Grim Lurker seemed afraid of. He called it the Fire Ruby." Daimen recalled.

Yuko narrowed her eyes in thought. "We'll ask him about this when he wakes up. For now, I want all of you to go back to your rooms and get some sleep."

The three of them reluctantly complied. Master Houjou, however, held Muraku back. "Rest up well. I'm letting you take the Aviane Trials tomorrow."

Muraku looked at his father in surprise. "Really?"

"Yes." Master Houjou told him with barely concealed pride for his son. "Get lots of rest. You're going to need it."

* * *

When Jin came to visit Arata's room the next morning, he was mildly surprise to see him already awake. But what actually surprised him was that Yuko was already here.

"I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow." Jin remarked as he sat down on the couch.

Yuko shrugged at that. "I have my ways."

"How is everyone?" Arata croaked out.

"They're fine." Jin said slowly and turned to Yuko. "Director Kaios is now talking to them about Uluru."

Yuko frowned and turned to Arata. "Do you know the cover story they are using?"

"Reika's telling me now." Arata said staring off in the distant. He blinked and then stared at the door. "He's coming now. Master Houjou is checking the others out of the hospital."

"Great." Yuko sighed in relief and stood up with Jin as the door opened revealing Director Kaios. He raised an eyebrow at Yuko's presence but ignored her as he walked over to Arata's side.

"Sena Arata?"

"Yes?"

"I would like to ask a few questions regarding what happened at Uluru if that is alright with you." He began, flicking his eyes at Yuko. "Privately."

"That will not be happening." Yuko said in a low voice. "I am his legal guardian. In case it has slipped your mind, Arata is a minor which means, I have a right to remain."

Director Kaios scowled and glared at Jin who nodded in confirmation of Yuko's words. "Fine, but I trust that you will keep anything discussed here to yourself."

Yuko formed a scowl but took the seat Jin vacated as he stood beside Director Kaios who turned his attention back to Arata. He asked him a few questions regarding the rouge LBX and the 'monsters'. Arata answered them patiently and consistently with the cover story Reika came up with. Once he was done, Director Kaios nodded in thanks.

"Thank you for cooperating with us. Hopefully, we can find the connection between the rouge LBX and the World Sabers, which brings me to my next point. For the past six months since Seredy has been arrested, he hasn't been cooperating with us."

Arata instantly tensed up and clenched and unclenched his fist to calm down. Yuko instantly went to his side, glaring at Director Kaios.

"Director Kaios, I don't think that this is necessary." Jin whispered, trying to change his mind.

"I'm sorry but it is." He replied sternly. Clearing his throat, he turned back to Arata. "I have a favor to ask of you. While Seredy refuses to cooperate with us in the interrogations, he said that he'll only answer to you."


	15. Muraku's Aviane Trial

**I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review!**

* * *

Over with Master Houjou and the other teens, the only adult had checked them out and brought them to the van he rented. There was an underlying tension among them because Arata had to stay back and was still undergoing interrogation from Director Kaios.

"I hate leaving Arata with that director." Reika grumbled as she climbed into van. "He's so nosy, acts like a boss and I swear that he was trying to tear our story apart just to find holes in it."

"While I am inclined to agree with you, we got to remember he's someone with a lot of authority in NICS. So it is natural that he'll act like that." Haruki pointed out.

"He's probably used to people listening to me and acting on his orders that he doesn't know how to address civilians properly." Master Houjou frowned. He was no less disgruntled than the others at how Director Kaios treated the teens like they were the people working under him instead of civilians who went through a traumatic experience.

"What are we going to do now?" Mia asked in a small voice.

"I'm going to drop all of you with Daimen's parents." Master Houjou shared a look with Muraku. "Then Muraku and I have to head out."

This gained confused looks from the others sans Reika and Daimen. "Why?"

"We have something important to do that cannot be delayed." Master Houjou said cryptically. Everyone else exchanged curious looks but remembering Master Houjou's temper, they decided against it.

* * *

Back at the hospital, Yuko sat on Arata's bedside, clearly fuming at Director Kaios' request. It was outrageous and inconsiderate in her opinion. But in the end, it has to be Arata's decision if he will see Seredy or not. Over at the other side of the room, Ban and Jin sat on the couch while waiting for Arata to make up his mind. The former was fidgeting nervously at Yuko's fuming while the latter was unfazed by it mostly.

"Well?" Yuko asked the invalid in the bed. "Are you going to agree with it?"

"I'm still thinking about it." Arata answered with a thoughtful frown. He tossed the idea around his mind several times, weighting the pro and cons of meeting Seredy. In truth, he was not as afraid of the request as he made it. But he still felt that he should not see Seredy though. There was something in his gut telling him that seeing Seredy would only bring a massive headache. Seredy is very good in playing mind games, that was for certain. And if he went to see him, there was a chance that Seredy would only try to get inside his head and manipulate him.

At the same time, he badly wanted closure of the Kamui Island and World Saber incident. He was angry with what Seredy did to Mia and Lara. Though he was not fond of Lara, he could not deny that he sympathized her for being victimized by him in the end. Perhaps seeing him behind bars would help.

Jin and Ban watched the younger teen closely and guessed what was going on in his mind. They knew this because they had been in his position several times already. One does not save the world several times without hoping for closure from their former enemies. Exchanging glances, they nodded. It was time for them to step up now and help their junior.

"Yuko, do you mind waiting outside for a while? Ban and I want to talk to Arata for a while." Jin requested, surprising Yuko and Arata. Yuko frowned at them but nodded in consent and left them to talk.

"Arata, we won't try to convince you to meet Seredy, but we understand what you are going through." Ban began. "It's hard to decide on what you want to do. It could be easier to simply refuse to see him. But it is harder to face him after everything he did to you and your friends."

Arata's brow furrowed. "I don't see the point because unlike me, I can't think that you have been asked to see a former nemesis. And I know Seredy. He likes to play sick mind games. I'm more suspicious of what game he's playing in the long run than wonder about why he will only talk to me."

"I have to agree with you on that." Jin nodded his head in agreement. His mind unwillingly wandered back to that night in Kamui Daimon when Seredy purposely made him fight a LBX battle against a slave collar controlled Reika.

"You may be right about the part where we didn't have to deal with our former nemesis suddenly asking for a meeting with us. But, I can assure you that we faced the temptation to meet them again simply because we wanted closure on what happened."

When Arata raised an eyebrow questioningly, Ban and Jin shared humorless smiles.

"People don't save the world several times and not get nightmares of what could have happened if we failed."

This Arata can understand. He knew that Reika and several of his former classmates were having nightmares about the whole incident, especially those who were gassed and mind controlled. Truthfully said, he too had suffered nightmares for a while of not being able to save Mia in time.

After much contemplation and thought, he took a deep breath and gave them his answer. Ban and Jin exchanged uneasy looks. The former left the room to find Director Kaios to give him Arata's answer. Yuko peaked into the room and gave Arata a concerned look but did not say anything as she guessed his decision.

* * *

"Are you ready for this?"

Muraku glanced at his father with a determined nod. "Yes, I am."

After dropping off the teens at Daimen's parent's house, Master Houjou brought his son to an old shack on the other side of the city. It was isolated and not a lot of people came by which made it a perfect place for Fantasy to make it a base. Inside the shack, Master Houjou led Muraku to a mirror in the basement.

Master Houjou summoned out his Shadow Saber and lightly touched the surface of the mirror. The mirror rippled and the surface produced a multicolor hue.

"Go in."

Muraku tentatively stepped into the mirror with his father not far behind him. On the other side of the mirror, Muraku could not believe his eyes. He and his father came out in a plain open meadow with clear skies in the Aviane dimension. The surrounding area beyond the field is almost like the current Second World. Different areas had different climates. But what intrigued him the most were the creatures lurking around. They were not like the animals in their world but some closely resembled them.

"Some of the Avianes here are fusions of the animals in our world. But some of them are not." Master Houjou explained. "All Avianes have an affinity for an element like us Valorites and Vigilnites. And they live in the area which has the climate suitable to their element. This meadow is a neutral ground where all types of Avianes can meet up here. I'll admit though that the most common Avaines here are bird or dragon related."

"Why do you think is that?" Muraku asked curiously.

"I don't know. The term 'Avaines' is very close to our word avian because back then, our ancestors did not know how to call them other than ancestors, which is weird. And when the term 'avian' became known, many of them called the Avianes 'avianes' because they wanted the term to be more special and because many of them look like birds."

Muraku nearly sweatdropped at that explanation. Seeing his expression, Master Houjou gave a light roll of his eyes. "I know. I had that same expression when my father told me. Normally, we bond with the Avaine which has the same element as we do though there are several rare cases where it is not so. I'll bring you to the Shadow area where the umbrakineticists Avianes are and leave you to it. If you find that you would rather bond with an Aviane of a different element, we can go back to the meadow."

He brought up his fingers to his lips and gave a sharp whistle. Instantly, a black and grey color falcon like Aviane with a silver beak descended in front of them. Upon closer look, it looked like a peregrine falcon but larger. It was twice as big as Master Houjou. It eyed Muraku with curiosity with its sharp blue eyes.

"Thank you for coming Yin." He patted its beak. "This is my son, Muraku."

Yin nodded affectionately and inclined its head at Muraku's direction.

"Hello Yin." Muraku inclined his head as well. Master Houjou climbed onto Yin's back and motioned for Muraku to do the same. Once it felt that its passengers were secure, Yin flapped its wings and took off in the skies.

"Look over there." Master Houjou pointed at the area where Yin was headed. "That is the Shadow area."

The entire area was eerie yet beautiful in nature. The area was consumed by darkness due to the black clouds in the sky and the borders of the area, preventing light from going in. Crystals covered the land, giving out twinkling lights like stars.

"Notice the crystal patterns? They are closely related to the constellations of the stars." Master Houjou pointed out.

"Wow." Muraku breath out. "How is that possible?"

"I don't know. But it is highly believed that our dimension and this dimension are closely linked." Master Houjou smiled. "The Aviane dimension is a mysterious dimension for us even though the beings living here are our ancestors. It is also believed that there are other dimensions linked to it as well."

"What kind of other dimensions?" Muraku wondered curiously.

"No one knows." Master Houjou shrugged. "What information we know now is what was passed down to us a very long time ago. Despite all our efforts, we are no closer to discovering the secrets of the other dimension or the other mysteries of this dimension."

They soon landed on the sole mountain in the entire area with numerous caves. Muraku dismounted Yin but his father remained on his ride.

"Otou-san?"

"I'm staying here." Master Houjou shook his head. "You are supposed to do this on your own. Word of advice, do not expect anything and open your mind to everything. This will allow you to find the Aviane you are meant to befriend easily."

Muraku nodded and took a deep breath. He was ready for this, he kept telling himself. Despite only starting his training for six months, he progressed faster than anyone anticipated. So he can and will find the Aviane he was meant to befriend.

As he cautiously climbed down the mountain, he passed several caves. He could tell that there is at least one Aviane residing in each of them. But he shook his head with every cave he passed. He could tell in his gut that he was not meant to enter those caves.

The closer he got to the foot, the more despondent he was getting. So far, he had passed almost all the caves and yet, he knew that he was not meant to entre them. However, he had to admit that the scenery was more beautiful for there were more crystals on the surface than on the mountain. He soon came to the last cave. Before he passed it, he paused to get his breath and mind under control. If this was not the cave he was supposed to find his Aviane in, then so be it. He'll only search away from the mountain or the meadow if that was so.

Unlike the other times, when he passed this cave, he instantly felt in his gut that he had to enter this cave. So he did.

It took him a while for his eyes to adjust to the dark cave but eventually, they did. He could tell that the cave stretched long into the mountain and it would take a long time to get to the end. As he walked, he found more crystals lighting up the cave which struck him curious. He could tell based on the environment and nature of the Avianes living here that they prefer darkness.

 _"I normally prefer darkness but the crystals give calm aura that I like."_ Came a soft growl. Muraku jumped in fright, looking around for the source of it.

A soft flap echoed in the cave. Muraku felt something fly above his head and landed in front of him. He had to resist a gasp. In front of him stood a dragon-like Aviane with a large grey body and black wings. Its legs and hands however were white and it has warm purple eyes.

"Hello, Vigilnite." The dragon-like Aviane greeted him. "What brings you to my cave?"

Muraku gulped but stood tall and confident. "My name is Muraku. And I'm here because of the Aviane Trials."

The Aviane cocked its head curiously. "And why are you down here? Normally, no umbrakineticist would come down this close to the ground where the crystals are. They prefer to befriend the Avianes that live further up the mountain."

Muraku observed its words and the cave, concluding. "I supposed it has to do with the fact that I am not a conventional Vigilnite. My father was forced to seal up my powers when I was a baby to protect my sister. It was only recently that I discovered them. And I learned that normal Umbrakineticists usually do not allow themselves to have light in their lives and find it hard to balance light and dark in their hearts. That may be why they prefer the Avianes who dislike light."

"But I see that you can balance light and dark." The Aviane before him said shrewdly.

"That is because I grew up among light. My family and friends are my anchor in the light. When I found out about my powers, I learned to accept the fact that I have light and dark in me."

The Aviane made a light growl in its throat. "I see. Acceptance of who you are is what allowed you to do so. That is a very rare trait among Umbrakineticists. I can see that I am like you. I accepted that I like darkness just as I like light."

Muraku's face softened in relief and joy. He had completed his first task which is to find an Aviane whom he can befriend. It was clear that this Aviane shared his sentiments.

"My name is Umbra. And from this day forth, I wish to be your friend and companion Aviane." Umbra declared.

"And I am Muraku and I also wish to be your friend." Muraku smiled warmly. Umbra extended a hand which Muraku grasped and shook it, sealing their friendship.


	16. Seredy's Revelation

**I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review!**

* * *

It had been late at night when Muraku and Master Houjou returned to the Palk home. Daimen's mother was kind enough to usher them into the last spare room before heading to bed. Muraku's father was very grateful for their hospitality for he knew how hard it was for Daimen's parents to accept that their child was different.

When Muraku and Master Houjou were settled in and were about to go to sleep, the young man turned to his father. "Was it hard? Finding the Aviane you were meant to befriend and knowing that you have the responsibility not to abuse that power?"

Master Houjou raised an eyebrow at his son, wondering what brought up that question. He folded his hand in front of him as he thought about Muraku's question. "The power of the Avianes is capable of consuming a person if they are not careful, especially for umbrakinetists. Having a darkness in our hearts makes it tempting to abuse the Avianes' power for our own ends. I too had struggled with the temptation of power in more than one occasion. What brought this up?"

Muraku adverted his eyes. "When I was speaking with Umbra down in the caves, he implied that many umbrakinetisists and their Avianes were consumed by the darkness in themselves. It reminded me of Itan Kyouji. Part of me is afraid that I will become like him…"

"You will never become like him!" Master Houjou cut in fiercely. "You are not like those other umbrakinetists either! You are too loyal to your family and friends to become dark like them. Itan Kyouji cares about no one than himself. That's the main difference between you and him."

Muraku did not say anything, but relief was visible in his eyes. "Thank you, otou-san."

Master Houjou smiled at him warmly and nodded. It slipped off when his phone went off. Frowning, he glanced at the screen. "Yuko?"

Muraku gasped silently at that. "Why Yuko-san is calling? Is Arata coming out of the hospital soon?"

"We'll see." Master Houjou answered the call and turned away from Muraku. "Yuko, what's Arata's status?"

As he listened to Yuko, his frown deepened and his grip on the phone tightened. Muraku instantly knew that that was a bad sign.

"…I got it. I'll make sure that the kids get back to Kamui Island by tomorrow."

"What happened?" Muraku asked, though dreading the answer.

"Arata agreed to help Director Kaios get answers from Seredy about the LBX attack on Uluru." Master Houjou said darkly.

"What?!" Muraku gasped in shock.

"Currently, he and Yuko are probably reaching America where they are holding Seredy. We are heading back to Japan tomorrow morning."

Muraku wisely decided not to say much more. But his mind was spinning as to why his best friend would want to see that psychopath and on the whim of Director Kaios. Arata was not someone to easily backdown and do what people wanted of him.

* * *

 _4 Hours Later…_

"Are you ready?" Director Kaios asked the red haired teen beside him. Once they had arrived at the prison, Ban and Yuko were forced to wait outside while Arata went in with Director Kaios and Jin. The dark haired man was now waiting in the security room where he and Director Kaios will wait for Arata to come out. They were now standing in front of the interrogation room where Arata and Seredy will talk. Given that Seredy refused to say anything whist being watched, the only opinion was for Arata to go in alone without any guards, cameras or listening devices. Even so, he will not be in the same room as the psychopath. Seredy will be in a separate room and there will be a glass wall separating them. The only way for them to communicate will be the mic and speakers in each room.

"Remember, there is a red button by the side of the door which you can use to call us once you are done." Director Kaios told him as he ushered him in and locked the door behind him.

Arata carefully sat down on the chair in the middle of the room. The glass which was darkened lighted up, revealing Seredy chained to a chair in his side of the room.

"So, you have finally come to visit me in my new humble abode." Seredy croaked out with an eerie smile. Arata hid it well, but inwardly, he was shocked to see the formerly confident younger looking Seredy being reduced to such a state.

"Cut the crap Seredy. We both know what I want." Arata said in a low voice. "You got what you want: me meeting you. So give me what I want."

"So impatient." Seredy sighed. He eyed him for a moment and smirked. "You have grown up a lot since Kamui Island."

"Yeah, yeah. The World Sabers was supposed to be disbanded after that and yet, they haven't yet." Arata bit out.

Seredy cocked an eyebrow in mild disbelief. "Oh?"

"The attack by rouge World Saber LBX at Uluru." Arata growled, his patience wearing thin.

"I can guarantee that I have nothing to do with that." Seredy shrugged. "I have practically no access to the outside world, not even letters. How can I orchestrate an attack like that?"

"You have your ways. And I think it would not be too difficult for you to convince another Valorite or Vigilnite to work for you. They are the only ones reachable to you."

"True, but the only Valorite and Vigilnite I had under my wings are Lara and Itan. And Itan is still out there running loose." Seredy pointed out. "He could orchestrate that outside my command. But given how his goal never coincided with mine and his personality, it is very likely that he wouldn't use anything related to the World Sabers to spite me."

"But most your admins and all the LBX players were arrested at Kamui Island."

Seredy shook his head in sorrow at that. "How naïve you are. The person whom you should seek for everything is someone whom you sympathize."

"What?" Arata shot up from the chair in anger and shock. "What do you mean by that?!"

"You're so smart and level headed, yet naïve. Just like your mother."

"Leave my foster mother out of this!"

"I'm not talking about your foster mother. I'm talking about your birth mother, Takona Kyona." Seredy explained calmly. "An exceptional lady, she is."

Arata turned pale and clenched his fist tightly. "I don't believe you."

"Deny her all you want, but the truth of the matter is this. Your mother and I have known each other for a very long time. When I first saw you, I knew that you are her son."

"Enough!" Arata slammed his fists on the glass. "Enough with your mind games! Tell me who is behind the attack on Uluru now!"

Seredy sat in silence for a few minutes, feeling disappointed in Arata. "Very well then. The person whom you are seeking is a criminal on the run, Tougou Giichi."

"You're lying." Arata hissed.

"Am I? Think about it, he has the means to do it, the authority and power to do it." Seredy pointed out, checking his fingers off with each point. "And I am surprised that you haven't made the connection yet. Tougou Giichi is the main controller of the ERP project and the one who basically controls everything in the Second World through his influence. And besides…"

His face turned sinister. "Who do you think killed your former girlfriend?"

Arata froze at his words. His face turned paler in rage as his whole body shook. "What?"

Seredy remained silent with a smug smirk, knowing that he finally cracked Arata's defenses. "The accident…it was not an accident at all. Tougou Giichi manipulated the truck driver into crashing into her and lie that it was an accident."

"You're lying!" Arata lunged at glass window, banging it in anger. Tears were streaming down his face by this time. A buzz sounded as the door was being unlocked. Arata quickly pulled away from the glass and waved his hand across his face to remove the tearstains. While he is not an illusion manipulator like Mia, he learned a few tricks with his telekinesis and telepathy.

"What is wrong?" Director Kaios demanded as he and Jin rushed inside.

"Nothing." Arata shook his head and lied. "He just brought up some bad memories of Kamui and I reacted badly. I'm sorry."

Director Kaios frowned but waved at the glass, darkening it and switching off the mics and speakers so that Seredy can no longer see or hear them. "So, what did he tell you?"

"The person that you need to look for is Tougou Giichi. He's the one behind the LBX attack at Uluru."

Jin's jaw dropped open at the revelation but Director Kaios was more irritated than surprise at this. "I knew it. We cannot waste any more time! We have to strengthen our efforts to find him before he plans another attack."

Jin nodded in agreement and turned to Arata. "Leave that part to us. I'll see to it that you and Yuko-san get back to Japan safely."

"Thank you." Arata breathed out shakily. He followed the man out, ignoring Director Kaios' eyes following him out.

Jin eyed the teen as they walked through security to get out of building. "Did anything happen in there? You look shaken up."

"I am." Arata mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"I tell you what, I'll bring you out for tea and we can talk about what Seredy said in there. Nothing that you say will reach Director Kaios' ears or anyone else's. You look like you could use a talk with a stranger." Jin offered.

"No offence, you're not a stranger." Arata snorted with a roll of his eyes.

"Just suggesting. I can tell that you're not ready to talk to Yuko-san or Reika about the matter yet. And you want to get whatever it is off your chest."

After some contemplation, Arata nodded. "Alright."


	17. A Sad Past Revealed

**I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review!**

* * *

After meeting up with Yuko and Ban, and reassuring the former that he was fine, he and Jin went out to the city to a quaint café. There, Jin requested a private room for them to talk. As soon as they got their orders, Jin gave Arata a meaningful look. Arata sat in silence for a while to gather his thoughts while absentmindedly stirring his tea.

Jin gave him the time to prepare himself emotionally but the words that came out of the red hair's mouth were not what he expected.

"I have to start all the way from the beginning. I think it's time I told you the full story of what happened to Reika and I."

Jin had nearly choked on his coffee when Arata said that. He gave him a slight disbelieving look. Yet, he inwardly felt proud at his 'kouhai' for finally coming out of his shell.

"Are you sure about this? What about Reika? Wouldn't she be mad that you're telling me this without her?"

"Actually, she was the one who suggested coming out with our past in the first place." Arata admitted with a shrug. "But she could not bring herself to tell you so she asked me to explain it to you instead."

Arata took a deep breath as he mentally prepared himself. "When I was only a few days old, I was abandoned at the orphanage I grew up in for the first four years of my life and I hated every moment of it. We now know that Reika was sent to a different orphanage but because of the Tokio Bridge Collapse incident, not because she was abandoned like we first thought. But like me, she was bullied because of her powers."

Jin clenched his fist tightly at that. If that orphanage was still open today, he would have had a word with the caretakers. Unfortunately, that orphanage, along with the one Arata came from, were shut down years ago.

"Eventually, we were adopted separately." Arata continued. "A young couple who could not have children came to my orphanage first and adopted me. Later on, they heard about Reika and adopted her as well from her orphanage." He blinked back his tears before hesitantly continuing. "They saved us. They saved us from our nightmares and gave us a new life. Even if the world sees us as monsters, they cared for us as though we were their own."

They were quiet for a moment. One lost in his memories and the other trying to digest what the former said. It had been a shock to hear it from Arata's mouth than from the speculation of Yuko.

"We were happy with the Sena parents. They gave us everything we could ask for and more." Arata said with a sad smile. "But we should have known that all good things will come to an end."

"What happened to them?" Jin asked quietly.

"They died in a car accident at Mt. Fuji nearly ten years ago."

Jin tilted his head at the red head. He could understand better now that he knew Arata and Reika's pasts. It also explained somethings but not all of it.

As thought reading his thoughts, Arata continued, "Then their relatives began to pour all their anger and hate on us. They blamed us for the accident. We ran away from them because they were going to put us back in the orphanages."

Jin stirred his tea thoughtfully. "That was when you met Yuko-san, I take it."

"Yeah." The corners of Arata's lips lifted. "She found us on the streets and sensed our powers. That's why she took us in and brought us to Fantasy."

Jin mentally sighed in relief that the tale was over. He was not sure if he could take hearing one more dark bit of Reika's past. But that meant that they had to come to the main point of their talk. "So what was it that Seredy told you that you do not want Director Kaios to know?"

"Seredy knows my birth mother, Takona Kyona." Arata told him with a serious look.

Jin instantly frowned at that. "How did he managed to tell that you're this 'Takona Kyona's son?"

"He gave the impression that he knows her well. He said that he knew that I was her son the moment he saw me."

Jin frowned thoughtfully. "What are you going to tell Reika?"

"I don't know. I don't know anything about her other than her name and she and Seredy know each other. I was hoping that you could help me look for more information about her." Arata admitted the last part.

Jin slowly nodded in understanding. "I can do that. But why me? Yuko-san would probably be a better option for this."

"I can't tell her exactly what Seredy told me or she'll find a way to kill him, maximum security prison or not." Arata groaned truthfully.

"…That is true." Jin conceded, knowing too well the protectiveness of Yuko towards her students.

"Also, I trust you to be discreet in looking for information. I don't want Director Kaios to hear about this and find out about Reika's and my past. Much as I would like to take your word that he is a good person, he has not left the best impression on me and my friends."

"He has that effect on people." Jin admitted. "I think he aged a lot since the Mizel incident. There has been a lot of pressure on NICS after that to use their services for the militia. He had to fight off all those attempts and maintain the organization on its original purpose."

"Oh." Arata lowered his head shamefaced. To think that this intimidating man has been working so hard just to maintain NICS's non-militia path and he and his friends were giving him a hard time.

As though reading Arata's thoughts (ironically), Jin smiled. "Don't worry, I'm sure that he understands."

Arata rolled his eyes. He blinked when his CCM went off so he turned away slightly to answer it. "Yes?"

 _"Arata, are you still in town with Jin?"_ Yuko's voice filtered through.

"Um, yes." Arata slowly answered.

 _"Oh, sorry to interrupt, but can you get to the airport now? I just got a call from Kalina. She's on her way to Japan so we have to converge at Japan to get to Fantasy together."_

"Alright. I'll see you there." Arata nodded and then hung up. Turning back to Jin, he gave the older man a slight smile. "I got to go now. Yuko-nee is needed in Fantasy."

"Alright. If I can find anything about Takona Kyona, I will let you know immediately." Jin promised him. "I'll take care of the tab as well."

"Thanks a lot." Arata nodded, referring more to the information search than the tab.

* * *

 _Ten hours later…Muraku's side_

The Kamui group, Reika and Master Houjou had docked at Kamui Island the next afternoon after Muraku's Aviane Trials. They were greeted by their friends with open arms, happy that Muraku won Artemist for the school's student population had increased since then. To celebrate this, they threw a party at the dorms. This time, it was a real party where most of their friends from other classes were invited and real food, unlike the sixth team's welcome party.

"It was amazing that you two paired up to try to defeat Jin-san and Asuka-san!" Yuno gushed at Muraku and Hikaru. The group consisting of Muraku, Hikaru, Haruki, Daimen, Reika and Mia were casually lounging and eating by one of the windows of the dorm's canteen that had a view of the gardens.

"It wasn't too bad." Hikaru shrugged. "But it was funny how Asuka-san and Makoto-san were arguing throughout the battle."

Mia and Haruki chuckled in amusement at that memory. Muraku pressed his lips together but is just as amused as they were. Daimen on the other hand burst out laughing. "Especially when Makoto-san keeps on mispronouncing Asuka-san's name deliberately. Right, Reika?"

However, Reika did not answer Daimen at all. Instead, she continued to push her food around her plate despondently while staring out the window.

Mia noticed this as well and frowned in concern. The normally bubbly girl was reduced to her current despondent state ever since they left Sydney. It was like all her self-confidence had evaporated.

Reika suddenly jerked away from the window and lost her grip on her plate which dropped with a crash. This made everyone jerked their heads at the group but Reika ignored them. With a horrified, grief-stricken expression, she ran out.

"Reika!?" Daimen called out in astonishment. He was about to follow her but a hand on his shoulder halted him. He turned to see who stopped him and raised an eyebrow in surprise to see it was Mia. But she was not looking at him, rather out the window.

"Daimen, didn't Reika like a boy call Koujou Takeru?" She slowly asked, not taking her eyes off whatever she was looking at outside.

"Yes." Daimen slowly nodded back.

"And wasn't there a girl, Otohime, who hates Reika?"

"Another yes."

"Look." She pointed outside. Daimen and the others crowed around the window and their jaws dropped open. Over at a quiet corner of the gardens, Takeru and Otohime were standing closely. In fact, Otohime was leaning in close to Takeru and he was blushing intensely.

"No way." Yuno whispered softly. "No wonder Reika ran out. How can he do this to her?"

They were soon joined by Suzunne and Inui who had similar reactions to them.

"Oh my goodness!" Suzunne slapped her forehead in exasperation. Inui sighed but for once it was directed at Takeru and not Suzunne. "How can that idiot be so oblivious to Reika but get flustered by Otohime!? And I thought she was into Kaidou-sensei!"

"That's not the real problem. Reika now thinks that Takeru likes Otohime instead." Daimen said grimly. "Not only did he give Sirena to Otohime, he is reacting to Otohime's advances instead of being oblivious like he was to Reika's."

Muraku then realized something important. "And when that happens…Arata will kill him."

Everyone became pale at that thought. They stared at him in shock and Suzunne turned to Daimen. "He wouldn't do that literally…right?"

"I don't know." Daimen admitted with a frown. "But, we have to do some damage control or we will have many unhappy people."

"I can go and talk to her." Mia offered.

Daimen nodded. "Alright. Muraku and I will go with you."

Mia and Muraku nodded and they left the canteen together. When they got outside the building, they happened to come across Otohime and Takeru coming in together. Daimen scowled and roughly shoveled between the both of them, causing them to yelp in surprise.

"To think you have the nerve to treat Reika like this." Mia muttered darkly at Takeru when she passed by him. This made him confuse and turned to Muraku who sighed and simply ignored him as he followed Mia and Daimen out.

"How are we going to find her?" Muraku looked around when he realized that Reika was nowhere to be seen.

"I don't know." Daimen's face fell. "If Arata comes back soon and learns about it, he'll never forgive him." His eyes drifted off to Mia who strangely was wandering off. Instantly, he caught up with her and grabbed her shoulder. "Mia?"

Mia blinked in surprise as though she was coming out of a trance. "What?"

"Are you ok?" Muraku asked as he came over. "You were wandering off."

"I was?" Mia blinked in confusion. She shook her head and frowned. "For some reason, I just felt that I knew where Reika is. I was heading where this feeling is directing me."

Unbeknown to her, Daimen and Muraku were sharing panicked looks when they realized it was her powers subconsciously guiding her.

"Really, maybe it's your instincts." Daimen tried to play it off with a nervous laugh. "You always had strong instincts even before what happened to you."

Mia did not look convinced at it. But for now, she accepted his explanation. When she continued forward, Muraku sighed in relief that his sister did not question Daimen's explanation. But something quipped his curiosity.

"Why is Mia able to subconsciously use her powers when Arata said that there is a mental block suppressing them?" He whispered.

"I don't know…Oh no. Uluru!"

"Uluru?" Muraku frowned but soon understood what he meant. His eyes snapped wide open. "The rouge LBX and Night Lurkers must have created a strong provocation that weakened the barrier."

Daimen nodded grimly and glanced at Mia up ahead them. "But this also means that she'll regain her memories fully if the barrier shatters. But how it will affect her mentally, I don't know."

"We have to get my father and Arata to check on her." Muraku decided in which Daimen nodded in agreement.

"Guys." Mia suddenly stopped, causing them to jump. "Reika's over there." She pointed at the direction of Gulf Peak.

"Of course." Daimen slapped himself lightly. "Why didn't I think of that before? Gulf Peak is her favorite moping spot."

"Come on." Mia gestured for them to follow her. When they got to Gulf Peak, sure enough, Reika was sitting on one of the benches. But she was hunched over and her body was trembling.

Mia carefully approached the auburn-haired girl. "Reika?"

Reika slowly looked up. Daimen was shock to see her red rimmed eyes and tear stains on her cheek. Instantly, he knew Takeru's doom is sealed. Muraku dug into his pocket and passed Mia a packet of tissue which she used one to clean Reika's face. "Shh…It's ok."

"It's not!" Reika snapped, fresh tears springing out. "I'm so useless! I wrongly thought badly of my parents for the whole of my life, I was weak at the Block Finals at Artemist, and I could not help you guys at Uluru! Now, I lost my chance with Takeru and he's with Miss Oujo-sama now!"

Daimen sighed and sat down beside her, rubbing her back comfortingly. "Reika, you're wrong. You're not useless or weak."

"But it's true." Reika sniffed.

"If it is, then why did Otohime felt the need to break you to get what she wants?" Muraku suddenly questioned.

"What?" Reika looked at him in confusion. Mia gave Daimen a questioning gaze but he shrugged, feeling just as perplexed as she was.

"Think. Otohime's main crush is Jin-san. Why would she suddenly gain an interest in Takeru?" Muraku patiently explained.

Daimen's eyes flashed up in understanding. "Oh, I see now. She's only using Takeru to hurt you because she wants Jin-san all to herself."

"That is disconcerting…and logically correct." Mia admitted. "Her obsession with Jin-san is creepy though."

"I know." Reika rolled her eyes, having calmed down with Muraku and Daimen's theory. But she became saddened. "But that does not explain why Takeru would prefer her…"

Mia frowned, placing a hand over her heart. "I know how you feel." She whispered.

Muraku became alert at that, realizing that the emotions from her breakup with Atsuya were surfacing after seeing Reika's heartbroken state. But when he opened his mouth to say something, an explosion threw them down.

"What?!" Muraku and Daimen snapped to attention, quickly getting up to defend Reika and Mia. When the smoke dispersed, they gasped in horror. Before them was the same Grim Lurker that was supposed to be destroyed in Uluru!

"Bwahahaha!" The Grim Lurker laughed menacingly when he saw their expressions. "You thought you destroyed be back at the forsaken rock? Well, think again! I will keep on regenerating over and over again! Not even the Element Stones can permanently stop me!"

"The Combo Blast!" Daimen cursed. "We didn't use it in the first place and it's the only thing that permanently stop them!"

Muraku tensed and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Reika sending Mia to safety with one of her portals. He grimaced for he knew what was coming once they stopped the Grim Lurker…if they could stop it at all. Remembering how strong it was the last time they fought against it, he braced himself for the brutal fight that was to come.

"I will devour all of you!" The Grim Lurker roared and shot out its ooze at them. Reika suddenly jumped in front of Muraku and Daimen, creating a portal to send it back at the Grim Lurker. It did not do anything but sneered as the ooze hit its body. "Thanks a lot! I love it when I get a power boost!"

"Power boost!?" Muraku and Daimen gasped. Reika let out a horrified gasp when she realized her mistake. This caused her self-confidence to dwindle more. Taking advantage of it, the Grim Lurker created an ooze arm and whipped Reika.

"Reika!" Daimen and Muraku yelled in horror as their friend was sent flying into the sea. They ran over to the edge, hoping to spot her. But after a few minutes, she did not resurface.


	18. Now or Never

**I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review!**

 **Author's note: From the next chapter onwards, the story will be a slight multi crossover with various fandoms. This will only be during their search for the Element Stones in other dimensions.**

* * *

"No." Daimen whispered in horror when Reika did not resurface. He was not worried of her drowning since hydrokineticists can breathe underwater. But the longer she stayed under, the more likely she's unconscious and might get swept up by the current.

"Don't take your eyes off me!"

The two teens were pulled back to reality and had to jump to avoid more ooze whips sent their way.

"The longer we allow this to continue, the more danger Reika will be in." Muraku gritted his teeth as he used his shadow tendrils to bat away the ooze despite hurting himself.

"I'm open to ideas on how to defeat him!" Daimen cried as he barely dodged more ooze and sent a mini tornado at the Grim Lurker. However, it didn't do much on it. The Grim Lurker smirked and whipped up more ooze whips. Daimen and Muraku's eyes gasped and were forced to move around to dodge them.

But they failed to notice that the Grim Lurker was forcing them to move closer and closer to each other.

"Ah!" Daimen cried out when he collided into Muraku. They landed in a heap and were not able get up.

"You're finished!" The Grim Lurker fired a huge amount of ooze straight at them.

On instinct, Daimen grabbed ahold of Muraku and quickly teleported away. However, the ooze suddenly changed direction and headed towards them. Again, Daimen teleported them out of the way. But each time they avoided the ooze, it kept changing direction and flew towards them.

"What's going on!?" Muraku cried out in shock when they narrowly avoided it only for Daimen to teleport them away when the ooze changed course.

"The Grim Lurker! It's manipulating the ooze to follow us no matter where we go." Daimen gritted out.

"Then in that case…" He and Daimen exchanged nods. Daimen released his hold on Muraku and they turned to face the ooze. His eyes glowed white as he created a massive air pocket to slow down the ooze. Muraku then summoned out his Shadow Sabers. He infused them with his powers and slashed at the ooze, dissipating it.

"No!" The Grim Lurker cried out in rage. "You destroyed my second-best attack!"

"Hah! We beat your second-best attack and we-wait a minute…" Daimen blinked in the middle of his triad. "Second-best attack?"

The Grim Lurker regained its evil smirk and laughed. Its slapped its forehead in remembrance. "That's right! I still have that attack!"

"You just had to open your mouth." Muraku facepalmed in despair. "You and Arata. What is it with the both of you that every time you open your mouth, something bad happens?!"

"It's not like we can help it!" Daimen shot back.

"Shut up!" The Grim Lurker took advantage of their distraction and snapped several ooze whips at them. The whips lashed out at the two boys, making them cry out in pain as they were sent flying a distance away from where they were originally standing. They were covered with bruises and cuts but struggled to stand up.

The Grim Lurker roared and raised its arms. There, ooze from its body began to travel up there, gathering into an orb outlined with purple evil energy.

"Take this! My best attack, Super Ooze Cannon!"

The Grim Lurker threw the attack at the boys' direction. Realizing that they could not move away in time, they squeezed their eyes shut in fear.

"You are not laying a finger on my son!" Master Houjou jumped out of a shadow and created a massive shadow pocket that literally swallowed up the attack and spat it out safely in an empty dimension pocket.

"No! My attack!" The Grim Lurker wailed.

"Otou-san." Muraku approached his father tentatively. Master Houjou was panting heavily from the effort needed to block the attack.

"I'm alright." Master Houjou reassured his son with a strained smile. But he winced and collapsed on one knee. His breath became heavier.

"Otou-san!" Muraku quickly supported him with one hand on the shoulder.

"The amount of energy needed to redirect it to another dimension is no joke." Daimen spoke gravely, narrowing his eyes at the Grim Lurker.

"Gr…You might have defended against my Super Ooze Cannon, but you're all weak! I'll destroy you here now!" The Grim Lurker raised its arms to attack. Immediately, Daimen ran in front of the Houjous and prepared himself to create a solified air barrier.

"Take this!" The Grim Lurker tried to shoot out ooze. But it came out in splutters instead. The Grim Lurker scowled and shook its arms. "I used up all my ooze for two big attacks. I better retreat. No matter, eventually the Grim Lurkers will devour all Avaines and children of the Avianes!"

A purple-ish dark light surrounded the Grim Lurker as it vanished. The three Vigilnites did not move until they were sure that they could no longer sense it.

"Otou-san." Muraku reverted his attention back to his father in concern. "We need to get you back to your house."

"You take care of him. I'm going to look for Reika." Daimen told him with a firm look.

Muraku nodded and swung his father's arm around him. "Good luck."

"And to you too." Daimen answered back with a wry smile and teleported away. Muraku frowned in confusion as to Daimen's words. But he groaned when he understood it. "What are we going to tell Mia?"

* * *

 _"Wake up Reika!"_

Reika's eyes shot up and she tried to get up. However, pain shot through her body, forcing her to lie back down. She blinked to get rid of the black spots and gasped when she recognized her Aviane, Aquila hovering over her with concern in its eyes.

"Aquila?" Reika furrowed her brow and turned her head around. She recognized her surroundings as the meadow in the Aviane Dimension. "I'm in the Aviane Dimension. But how? I remember fighting that Grim Lurker and then…I fell into the ocean."

 _"I brought you here."_ Aquila informed her. _"I sensed that you were in trouble so I created a portal to your world. Thankfully you were in the water then, otherwise the Grim Lurker would have seen me and tried to follow you in."_

"I have to go back." Reika painfully pushed herself up. Her whole body ached and she was sure she broke a few ribs from the Grim Lurker's ooze whip. When she looked down at her side, she realized her assumption was half correct. Burns resembling chemical burns marred her entire side, spanning all over her torso.

 _"Reika, you don't have to worry. The Grim Lurker has retreated for now. Your friends are safe."_ Aquila brought her attention back. _"The real reason why I brought you here is to help you gain a power that will help in your fight against the Grim Lurkers."_

"What?" Reika gasped. "What are we waiting for-Augh!" She cried out in pain when she tried to stand up, forgetting about her injuries.

 _"Let me help."_ Aquila lowered its head so that it was leveled with Reika and breathed out softly. Blueish aura surrounded Reika, healing her.

"Thanks." Reika slowly stood up and sighted in relief. While the aches were still present in her muscles, the burns and broken ribs were mended the best Aquila could afford with its aura.

 _"Climb on."_ Aquila lowered its body for Reika to get on. Once secured, Aquila took off for the water area. But instead of landing there, Aquila headed towards the boundary of the Aviane Dimension at the end of the area.

"Aquila, where are we?" Reika asked when Aquila landed right at the boundary. There were several portals present of varying colors on the boundary and each one showing differing images.

 _"At the place where the barriers between our dimension and various others are at its weakest."_ Aquila then pointed at one of the yellow portals. _"You have to take that portal and find one of the Element Stones."_

"What!?" Reika turned to her Aviane friend in shock. "No-no! I can't find an Element Stone! I'm not qualified for it!"

Aquila sighed and attempted to pat the girl with its wings. _"Your confidence is lacking, more than usual."_ Being one of the girl's closest friend and confident, it knew all about Reika's insecurities and low self-confidence. But now, she was more down than usual.

"Things happened." Reika muttered, sinking on her knees, burying her face in her hands. "I'm not as strong as my friends and always need to rely on them. That's why they are getting hurt and why Takeru doesn't like me."

Aquila nearly sweatdropped at Reika's confession. _"Um, I don't know how to help you with your crush. But, don't you think that your reasons are a bigger reason to get stronger?"_

"True…" Reika mumbled thoughtfully.

 _"Also, finding this particular Element Stone might help you with your confidence."_ Aquila hinted and then looked at the girl seriously. _"The Grim Lurker might have retreated for now. But unless you can get this Element Stone, your friends will be in grave danger."_

Reika snapped her head up in horror at the thought of her friends at the mercy of the Grim Lurker. She clenched her fist tightly and forced herself to stand up. "Alright. Alright. I'll…I'll go and get it."

Aquila gazed at her human friend with admiration for her courage despite having no confidence that she will succeed. _"If you need to, contact me and I will get you out of there. But once you find the Element Stone, you can open up a portal on your own."_

Reika took a deep breath and nodded. With tentative steps, she arrived before the portal. She raised a hand to touch it but hesitated at the last minute.

'Calm down Reika.' She told herself, forcing her body to take another deep breath. 'You can do this. You have to do this. If not…" She grimaced at that trail of thought. She closed her eyes as she thought of her friends and her family. Building up resolve in her, she snapped her eyes open with determination burning in them.

"It's now or never."

With those words, Reika stepped into the portal.

* * *

When Muraku stepped out of his shadow with his father in tow in the living room of Master Houjou's house, they were greeted by Mia staring at them blankly. Muraku gulped silently but said nothing as he helped Master Houjou rest on the couch. Mia followed their movement with her eyes but did not say anything at all.

The tension between them was very visible and Master Houjou inwardly sighed. This was not how he wanted his daughter to find out the truth but there was very little they could do now.

Finally, Mia broke the tension with one simple, yet hard, question. "What is going on?" When neither Muraku or Master Houjou answered her, she continued, "What are those monsters?"

"It's not something we can tell you just yet." Master Houjou said softly.

"Is it because I don't remember anything? Because I have no idea of what you guys are doing so you have to hide everything from me?!" Her voice rising with every word.

Muraku glared at her and diverted his attention from their father and got in front of her. "Mia, believe me when I say this. We don't want to hide this from you, but we have to."

"Why!?" Mia screamed at his face. "Why do you need to hide everything from me? Do you know how it feels like to be excluded from everything? Everyone seems to know what is going on but I don't!"

Rarely did Muraku lose his temper, but when Mia's word unintentionally brought up sore memories of him being excluded from his family because everyone thought he was powerless, literally. He knew he shouldn't get angry at her, but he couldn't help it.

"What do you know!?" Muraku yelled back at her. "I had to endure being out of the loop in the family because out of everyone in the family, including you, I was the only one different! Don't talk that you're the odd one out like you know it!"

"ENOUGH!"

Both Mia and Muraku jumped and spun at their father who had stood up and yelled. Master Houjou tried to walk towards his children but his knees gave out.

"Otou-san!" Both Houjou twins rushed to their father and helped him back on the couch.

"Otou-san, you shouldn't have done that." Muraku lightly chided him.

Master Houjou raised an eyebrow at him and sighed. "You should have heard yourself Muraku. I know that you are hurt from what you went through before, but that does not mean you can yell at your sister like that."

He switched his attention to Mia. "And Mia, I'm sorry that we have to hide everything from you. But please trust us on this. We really want to tell you everything, but we cannot risk your safety physically and mentally until you regain your memories."

Mia's face became crestfallen and she sank down on the couch. "I'm sorry. Part of me badly wants to remember. But another part is scared to. Whatever that happened to me, it must have been very bad that I naturally don't want to remember about."

"I know." Master Houjou pulled her closer to him. Muraku sat down on her other side and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

"I'm sorry." Muraku quietly apologized. "I shouldn't have yelled at you like that."

Mia let out a shaky laugh. "Apology accepted."

Master Houjou smiled at his children. They were getting along better like the times before their separation. He never got over the guilt of separating them and then alienating them from him. But seeing them being close again and acting like normal siblings, he was glad to keep it this way.

The warm atmosphere was broken when Muraku's CCM started ringing. Frowning, he got up and left the living room to answer it.

"Is everything alright?" Mia asked her father worriedly.

"I think so." Master Houjou said evenly, not wanting to startle his daughter.

Meanwhile, Muraku had taken the call from Daimen in the guest room Reika and Arata were using.

"Daimen, did you find Reika?"

 _"No, not yet."_ Daimen replied through gritted teeth. _"There's no sign of her at all. I checked the coast but there's no one there. I'm going to go underwater to find her now."_

"Do you need me to come over and help look for her? Mia can take care of otou-san for now."

 _"No, I can breathe underwater while you can't. It'll be better for me to look for her. You keep an eye out for the Grim Lurker in case it returns."_

"Alright. Keep me posted." Muraku hung up and let out a sigh as he clutched his CCM tightly. They had to find Reika soon before the Grim Lurker returns. And worse, they had to find her before Arata came back. Who knows what will happen if Arata finds out that his beloved sister is missing.


	19. A New World, A New Friend

**I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review!**

 **Author's note: From this chapter onward, the story will be a slight multi crossover with various fandoms. This will only be during their search for the Element Stones in other dimensions. This one will be in the Inazuma Eleven world.**

 **Inazuma Eleven has been one of my favorite anime for a very long time. In fact, it was one of the first anime I seriously liked. Takes place sometime during Episode 53 before the Inazuma Caravan returned to Inazuma Town from Okinawa.**

* * *

The first thing Reika noticed when she stepped through the portal was that she was in a town. But not one that she knows of given that this is a different dimension.

"Alright, first things first, find someone to tell me where I am…but where in the world is the Element Stone located here? It could be anywhere!" She thought out loud in frustration. Looking around, she found herself in a decent neighborhood. Not too far was a hill with a tall steel tower with a lightning bolt at the top.

"That looks like a nice landmark." She mused, not looking at where she was going. Unfortunately this cost her for she accidentally bumped into three punks.

"Hey! Watch it!" The one in the lead roughly shoveled her aside. Reika scowled at him and clenched her fist to refrain from hitting that guy. She was not having the best of days. First she finds out that Takeru doesn't like her the way she likes him, then she got her butt kicked by the Grim Lurker, and now she has to find the Element Stone in a world which is unfamiliar with!

Needless to say, Reika is done with everything and is very close to unleashing her dark side on these boys if they don't leave her alone. Unfortunately, the foolish boys, unaware of the possible danger they were in, continued to taunt her and one even made an inappropriate comment about her figure. And that's when Reika snapped. She raised her fist to punch that guy but a soccer ball came out of nowhere and beat her to it.

"OI! Who did that!?" The leader demanded as he and his other lackey jerked their head around, looking for the culprit. A boy looking slightly younger than Reika stepped forward. He had waist length gold blond hair that gave him a girly look and redish eyes. He was wearing a white jersey with a blue stripe at his collar and at the end of his sleeves. He also wears white wristbands with blue ends. His shorts are black and he also has a grey sash slung across his jersey. His socks are a shade of grey and he wears black shoes.

"Leave her alone." He quietly demanded.

The punk leader stared at him for a second and burst out laughing. "Well, if it isn't the so-called god. Trying to save this girl here? You can't even win a pathetic match with your Aqua of Gods."

The boy clenched his fist in frustration and anger at the taunts of the punk. And that's all the prompting Reika needed to take action. She unexpectedly swung her fist into the remaining lackey's gut, knocking the wind out of him. He howled in pain and collapsed, clenching his gut. The leader spun around when he heard his lackey's howl only to be met with a shoe hitting him straight in his face. Crying out in pain, he jerked away while clutching his nose.

But he soon regained his balance and raised his hand to hit her. "Why you-!"

Reika braced herself to block the blow but it seems like there was no need to. The same soccer ball found its way back to its owner and he kicked the ball straight at the boss punk's face. This time, he fell backwards, knocked out cold.

Reika whistled in awe and grinned at her helper. "Thanks for the save. But I could have given his face a new look by myself."

The boy blinked in shock and disbelief. But he slowly nodded. "You're welcome…I guess."

Reika picked up the ball and handed it back to him. "Here you go."

The boy gingerly took the ball back. He looked uncertain and almost looked like he was waiting for her to say something. Reika eyed him curiously. "What's wrong?"

The boy blinked at her in slight shock and disbelief. "You're not going to mock me?"

"Why would I do that?" Reika raised an eyebrow. "I mean, it would be mean to do that after you helped me."

The boy was stun, but there was only one explanation why she was not mocking or condemning him for his mistakes. "You're not from around here, are you?"

Reika thought carefully about her response before grinning. "No, my friends and I were fooling around on the bus and we kind of got off at the wrong stop and got split up. So, I can't say I have any idea where I am now."

"What…"

"I know, you don't believe me." Reika giggled. "So where am I exactly?"

"…Inazuma Town." The boy answered after a moment of pause to decide if the older girl before him was crazy or not.

"Inazuma Town…thanks. I'm Reika by the way." She offered before turning off to head her own way. But she stopped and cocked her head back. "And you are?"

"Afuro Terumi, but I'd rather be called Aphrodi." The boy mumbled. If she did not recognize him by looks, she will recognize his name and know what he did at the Football Frontier. But to his surprise, she merely smiled and gave him a wave.

"Ok, Aphrodi-kun. Thanks again for the help. Though I had it under control." She casted a cheeky smile at him before heading off.

Aprhodi was taken aback but smiled slightly. It has been a long time since anyone treated him normally after his team's disastrous match against Raimon. Everyone had either scorned them or feared them. So Reika's unassuming attitude towards him was refreshing in a sense.

* * *

 _Hours later…_

Reika was not faring well in her search for the Element Stone. Despite now knowing where she was, she had no idea of what this dimension holds and where the Element Stone could be. She knew that Arata had felt a pull to Uluru before to the Fire Ruby. But all she got was a vague feeling that it was somewhere in the town. In order to reduce the perimeters search, she had been slowly wandering around the town to see if there is any pull to guide her. Unfortunately, there was nothing and it was soon evening.

"What I would give to have some sign on the Element Stone's location." Reika sighed tiredly as she trudged on the road, unaware of where she was going. It was only when she heard the sounds of a ball being kicked around that she realized that she was on a bridge over a river with a soccer field on its banks. Aphrodi was down there kicking the ball around. Reika grinned and decided to get a closer look.

Down at the field, Aphrodi was unaware that he was being watched. He continued to kick the ball while moving around the field like he was dodging someone. He then used God Knows and shot the ball straight into the net.

"Wow."

Aphrodi jumped and spun around, temporary ignoring the ball which rolled up to Reika's feet. She offered him a small grin. "You're pretty good. I have a friend who likes soccer too. He would drag us to play with him sometimes. But none of us are as good as he is so it's no fun, you know? To play with someone who is so good in soccer but you can't keep up with him."

Aphrodi's face fell. "I'm not as good as you think. You heard what those punks said. I'm nothing without the Aqua of Gods."

"What's that?" Reika frowned.

"A steroid. I never wanted to use it in the first place, but I gave in to my pride and used it. My team was one of the weakest in Japan…when we heard that Raimon, a newbie team that is rumored to be weaker than us, beat Teikoku, we lost it. A team that is supposedly weaker than able to defeat Teikoku, the strongest soccer team in Japan at that time, officially made us the weakest. That's why we felt like we had to resort to using the Aqua of Gods!" Aphrodi let it all out bitterly.

Reika's face contorted slightly in shock, but she quickly shook her head to get rid of it before Aphrodi could see it. It was clear that he made some mistakes but he was remorseful over them. That was more than enough for Reika to not condemn him over them. Instead, she went over and placed a hand on his shoulder in comfort.

"Can you show me how to play soccer?"

Aphrodi was startled by her request. Despite everything he did, she still wanted him to teach her soccer?!

"You're a good person, I know that." Reika shrugged. "If you weren't you would have been feeling remorseful over what you've done. And I can tell that you have been working hard to hone your skills. No one can achieve your level without that. I would know since I'm a martial artist."

Aphrodi was needlessly said shellshocked. Slowly, he smiled. "Thanks. So, for starters, how about I show you how to dribble?"

Reika beamed and took up that offer. So, for the next hour, she was practicing on her dribbling. When Aphrodi saw how quick she was picking it up, he moved on to passing and eventually shooting. But when he was not looking, Reika could see he held some uncertainty and at times, it was like he no longer felt sure of himself.

'Just like me.' She realized sadly. Her confidence has been in all time low since coming here. So, when they took a break, she decided to ask, "So, how are you holding up?"

"What?" Aphrodi froze and tensed up.

"I mean, how are you holding up from using the Aqua of Gods?" Reika clarified.

Aphrodi was hesitant to talk about it. But seeing the openness and concern in Reika made him feel like he can trust her not to judge him. If she was the judging type of person, she would have done so when he told her about the Aqua of Gods earlier.

He took a deep breath and sighed. "It has been hard. I feel terrible for what I did because…I'm the captain of my team. And as a captain, I should have protected my teammates. Instead, I dragged them into this all because of my pride and need to be the strongest. And now, they are going through the same thing as I am. The mocking, the withdrawals, and…low confidence." He whispered the last part, as though he was ashamed of it.

"It's not a weakness to admit a weakness in you." Reika lightly reassured him in her best 'Arata' impression. She then smiled sadly. "I wish I can say that I don't know how you are feeling, except for the withdrawal part, I know what it's like to be mocked and have low confidence. Heck, my confidence is at all-time low."

Aphrodi stared at her in disbelief and said so himself. Reika laughed nervously. "I may not show it, but most of the time, I hide my lack of self-confidence by acting outgoing and childishly. I know, I may not seem like it, but that's the truth. I've been having several setbacks recently that has been slowly diminishing my confidence."

"Oh." Aphrodi murmured, understanding what she was going through. He sighed and stared at the river where the sun set's reflection was glowing. "I don't hate Raimon for defeating my team. Rather I'm thankful for what they did to open my eyes. That's why I want to return the favor by helping them against the aliens."

Reika's eyebrows shot up at that. "Aliens!? What aliens?"

Aphrodi shot her a look that borderline suspicion. "The aliens that are attacking schools and destroying soccer teams through soccer matches. Raimon is currently the only ones fighting them back." He glared at her, making her avert her eyes nervously. "Everyone in Japan knows about this."

"Did I mention that I was out of Japan for a while and only came back recently?" It was not a lie since she did come back to Japan from Australia in her dimension. But that was something Aphrodi was not going to find out.

Thankfully, Aphrodi accepted her white lie. So he continued, "But I'm scared about approaching them. They don't have the best impression of me, so why would they trust me to help them now?"

Reika frowned in thought. "How and when do you want to join them?"

"I haven't thought that far since I don't think I would do it after all." Aphrodi admitted. Unseen by him, Reika was casting a horrified look at him. She did not think that Aphrodi's situation was that bad but now, it would seem she needed to do something to help him. But what?

* * *

Nightfall soon came and Reika and Aphrodi went their separate ways. Despite being exhausted from wandering around all day, Reika could not help but wonder if there was anything to do to help her own confidence so that she can help Aphrodi.

Soon, she found herself at the steel tower she saw when she arrived. With a sigh, she threw herself on the railing, admiring the town's view. Views like this had always calmed her, but there was a part her that still felt troubled. How was she going to help Aphrodi when she needed to find the Element Stone first?

"Ah!" She punched the railings in frustration. "What am I supposed to do!?"

Almost as if it was an answer to her pleads, a flashed came from a tree with a tire dangling from it (what it was for, Reika did not know). This made her jump and cautiously approached the tree. The trunk was swirling with blue light and a crack opened up.

"What is going on?" Reika wondered in awe and fear. She then remembered Arata's own experience on top of Uluru when the Fire Ruby summoned him. A cracked on the ground brought him there. So could this crack bring her to the next Element Stone?

She was about to reach for the crack when something made her hesitate. Can she do this? Will she be worthy for the Element Stone to bond to her?

But she thought back to what Aquila told her. The Grim Lurker will be back and only she can save her friends when the time comes. Aquila also did mention that this can help boost her confidence.

Reika hardened her face. She was going to do this. For her friends. And for Aphrodi. If she can get that confidence boost, she can show him that he can get the confidence he needs to help Raimon. So, no longer hesitating, she touched the crack. Instantly, a blinding light shone from the crack. When it died down, Reika was no longer there.


	20. Character and OC profiles (Part 2)

**I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Please favorite, follow or review!**

 **This is not a new chapter but the second and last part of the OC profile.**

* * *

 **Main OC characters**

Name: Daimen Palk

Age: 16 (WARS), 17 (HFTES)

Appearance: He barely changed since the events of Kamui Island but his hair is slightly longer and wears blue contacts

Casual Clothes: He now wears a grey jacket with a light brown shirt underneath, dark blue jeans and black sneakers

Character: He is an easy going person and is very patriotic. He does not get along with Atsuya because of his feelings for Mia

Power: Aerokinesis, teleportation

Weapon: Aero Mace

Aviane: Sora (An eagle Aviane that has grey body and white wings. Its beak, talons and eyes are yellow.)

* * *

Name: Nick Skyfly

Age: 19

Appearance: Because he briefly joined the military after graduating from Fantasy, his black hair is now cropped short and gains more muscle.

Casual Clothes: He prefers to wear a brown sleeveless t-shirt and camouflage pants. He also wears black combat boots now.

Character: He is a very kind individual who loves his friends and girlfriend Maya. He constantly looks out for the younger ones of their group as he is the oldest. After joining the military for three months, he is more mature and less teasing towards his girlfriend. But he suffers slight PTSD because of the military.

Power: Chlorokinesis, Metamorphosis

Weapon: Forest Spear (A green, wooden spear with vine carvings and steel point with sharp metal leaves surrounding it.

Aviane: Vipra (A green tree snake Aviane that is five meters long. It's fangs and eyes are gold.)

* * *

Name: Houjou Maya

Age: 19

Appearance: In HFTES, she dyed her hair completely purple now and cut into a bob. Her height is added slightly.

Casual Clothes: In HFTES, she wears a red tank top and a black sleeveless shirt underneath. She also wears back skinny jeans and black platform boots.

Character: She is a rebellious, bad tempered person. Very few people make it into her good books. Reika, being her frienemy, is somewhere between her good books and her bad books, or so she claims.

Power: Cryokinesis, Power Replication, Sonic Scream

Weapon: Ice Axe

Aviane: Howl (A silver wolf the size of a horse, black eyes and white teeth)

* * *

Name: Kuriko Atsuya

Age: 18

Appearance: Nothing changes much about him other than he's an inch taller and his hair is less wavy.

Casual Clothes: He wears a yellow t-shirt and baggy shorts.

Character: He is very laid back and secretly vain. He was a womanizer before but stop after he broke up with Mia.

Power: Electrokinesis

Weapon: Electro Bardiche

Aviane: Electro (A small size Aviane shape like a lightning bolt with a body composition of plasma.)

* * *

Name: Kuriko Yuko

Age: 23 (HFTES)

Appearance: In HFTES, her hair is now longer and braided. Her features are more distinctive and Arata and many others consider her prettier now.

Casual Clothes: Because she is a teacher in Fantasy again, she wears a brown collared t-shirt with Fantasy's logo and tan pants for easy maneuvering. She also wears black combat boots.

Character: As a teacher and older sister figure, she's firm yet encouraging towards her students. And she can be overprotective of Arata and Reika as she was the one who found them on the streets.

Power: Geokinesis, Telekinesis, Memory Wipe

Weapon: Rock Shinobigatana

Aviane: Grizzla

 **Side OC Characters**

Name: Kayagi Hana

Age: 21

Appearance: She has long jet-black hair that she ties in a half-moon ponytail and brown eyes.

Casual Clothes: She wears a grey shirt with a white jacket over it, a grey skirt and brown flats.

Character: She's caring towards her friends, especially Jin whom she has been dating for nearly four years. Yet, she occasionally gets exasperated by her roommate Kalina.

* * *

Name: Kanai Makoto

Age: 21

Appearance: He has dark hair with ocean green eyes. More often than not, he has a cheeky grin that drives Asuka mad

Casual Clothes: He wears a casual red shirt with black and white cats printed on it. He also wears black pants and black sneakers

Character: His favorite hobby is teasing Asuka and riling her up. Rarely does he get riled up.


	21. Trial of the Aqua Sapphire

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

* * *

 _At the real world, Arata's side_

Something was wrong. That much Arata knew when he arrived back at Japan with Yuko. Something was wrong and Reika is in trouble. He knew he had to get back to Kamui Island as soon as possible. The problem is, Yuko is not letting him go.

"Arata, stop worrying. If anything had happened, Master Houjou would have told us by now." Yuko chided him. While she understood his concerns, she was not too worried since Master Houjou was on the island and the kids will be safe with him. Even so, she knew that Arata never got this worked up unless his instincts were really worrying him. So maybe there might be something wrong…

"Why don't you call Daimen or Muraku to check on Reika if you are that concern." She suggested to calm his frays.

Arata conceded to that idea and dialed Daimen on his CCM. But the Aussie was not picking up. This struck weird but he chalked it down to him forgetting to charge his CCM before he went to bed…again. So he dialed Muraku's number instead, hoping that he was still awake.

* * *

Over at the Houjou house, Muraku was attending to his father when his CCM rang. He instantly grabbed it but froze when he saw the caller ID. His father instantly saw his hesitance.

"Who is it?"

"…Arata."

"Oh." He immediately understood his son's hesitance. Even he was reluctant to relay Reika's demise to the red-haired teen. Back at Fantasy, Arata was infamous for his protectiveness of Reika and everyone, even some of the teachers, were afraid of him for that.

Muraku's thumb hovered over the accept button but stop short of pressing it. He knew that Arata would be suspicious if he did not pick up but he could pass it off as being asleep since it was late. But what would happen if he decided to call Hikaru or Haruki next if not Daimen. Daimen obviously could not answer since he was underwater, looking for Reika. And if he called Hikaru or Haruki, they could tell him about the Takeru incident and know that they haven't went back to the dorms which will make him panic and come here immediately. Who knows how he will react if, when, he learns that Takeru had again unintentionally hurt Reika and the Grim Lurker made her missing.

So with great reluctance, he accepted the call while schooling his face to be neutral so as to not give away anything. "Yes?"

"Muraku!" Arata sighed in relief that at least someone was answering the phone. "Sorry for calling so late. Did I wake you up?"

"No. I'm with otou-san now." He said truthfully.

"Oh. Anyway, I wanted to check up if things are ok on your side."

"They are fine."

Muraku and his father blinked in surprise at how smooth those words flowed out of the former's mouth. It did not seem like Arata realized it though or he was more absentminded than he thought. Muraku blinked and lightly shook his head. Maya must have influenced him a lot to be able to lie that well.

"Oh. Can you tell Master Houjou that Yuko-nee and I are back in Japan already but we have to go back to Fantasy to see Lina-senpai. So I'll probably be back by tomorrow afternoon."

"Take your time." Muraku reassured him. Inwardly though, he was nearing a panic attack. They had to find Reika before Arata returned tomorrow.

"One more thing, how's Reika?"

Instantly, Muraku's stomach dropped. The dreaded question. "She not with me at the moment."

"Eh? She's not obeying curfew?"

"She's spending the night with her friends at the dorms." Muraku winced at how lame his lie sounded.

Thankfully, he overheard Yuko calling out to Arata so he did not catch the sentence fully and was now distracted. "Alright then. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Night."

"Good night." The instant he hung up, Muraku collapsed on the couch. "I am never doing that again."

"Arata is not the easiest person to deliver bad news, especially if it is about Reika. But I suspect that if he were in your shoes, he would have done the same."

Muraku turned to face his father with a tired look. "I know." He ran Arata's words around his mind again and sighed. "We need to find Reika before Arata comes back tomorrow."

"I see. But I wouldn't worry about it if I were you."

His father's unexpected response was enough to render him speechless. Master Houjou then elaborated, "If my suspicions are correct, the Grim Lurker is not the one responsible for Reika's disappearance. We should focus more on the Grim Lurker and when he will return. I only hope that we can resolve that issue before the island becomes aware of it."

Muraku was doubtful of this. But he trusted his father nevertheless. He only hoped that she would return in time when the Grim Lurker regains enough strength to strike back.

* * *

 _At the IE universe, Reika's side_

"Welcome Aqua Child."

Reika blinked as the light subsided. Instead of the tree at the steel tower, she was in a damp cave with dark blue pools spread around the ground. As Arata had described the cavern of the Fire Ruby, at the end of the cave was a pedestal with a glowing blue gem on it. Standing beside it was a blue hooded figure but Reika managed to make out the curvy figure underneath the robes which means the guardian is a female.

"I have been informed by Oracle of your arrival. I believe you know who I am." The guardian continued. But her head was tilted skeptically at her.

'It was as though she doesn't believe that I can pass the Element Stone's trial.' Reika realized with mild displeasure. Although she could not blame her since she did not entirely believe in herself either.

"If you want the Aqua Sapphire, you have to prove yourself." The guardian continued, walking over to the wall. She tapped on it and a section of it collapsed, revealing a tunnel. "Go through here and you'll find the test."

"Alright." Reika slowly nodded. But the lack of information of what the test is was unnerving. Not to mention the guardian's condescending attitude was getting on her nerves. However, Aquila's words rang in her head.

"But unless you can get this Element Stone, your friends will be in grave danger."

Holding her head high, she brushed passed the guardian and entered the tunnel.

* * *

After walking for a few minutes, Reika eventually saw light at the end of the tunnel. Which could be either good or bad. Taking a deep breath, she stepped out of the tunnel. Blinking her eyes, the first thing that she saw was a village without color. She gasped and slowly approached it. The streets were bare and depressingly grey, black and white like the rest of the village was.

"What happened here?"

"Our color was taken away."

Reika jumped and spun around quickly, her hands poised to shoot high pressured water. But instead, she quickly lowered them when she realized it was only a colorless elf who was cowering. She raised her hands to show that she was not going to hurt him and crouched down to his eye level.

"Sorry about that. But what do you mean that your color was taken away?"

"We don't know. One day our village has color and the next day, it was gone, taken." The elf said sadly.

"I'm so sorry. Is there any way color can be restored?"

"Yes. But none of us can get it. Follow me." The elf gestured for her to follow him. He led her to the outskirts of the village where there was a wide gorge with only a thin wire between it. On the other side was a rainbow.

"Our color can be restored only by that rainbow. One must collect its color power and bring it back to the village. The problem is no one has been able cross the gorge. The wire's too thin and no one is brave enough to try it. Even if they did, they would turn back half way." The elf explained.

Reika bit her lip and stared down the bottomless gorge. It would be mean to turn her back on the elf and the village. But crossing the wire sounded daunting to her and not too mention, she could fall off the wire at any moment.

She took a deep breath and muttered, "I can do this. Just do it and get the rainbow's color and get back. How ha-!" She quickly cut herself off before she jinxed herself. Shaking her head with a rueful grin, she thought to herself. 'I'm not going to jinx myself like Arata does all the time. He's done enough of that to last a lifetime.'

She tentatively placed a foot on the wire and pressed lightly to test its stability before stepping on it fully. Gently bouncing on the wire, she did a few flips along the wire. But halfway through, she made the mistake of looking down and gasped. She nearly slipped on the wire with her distraction but thinking quickly, she grabbed ahold of it and held on until she was sure that she wouldn't stumble and straightened herself.

'This is no use. I can't do it.' She squeezed her eyes shut. 'When did I become this unconfident? Normally I can handle something like this better. Oh, Arata was always there to give me pep talks if my confidence gets on the low level. What is that he always told me?'

* * *

 _Flashback_

 _"Reika! You here?" Arata peaked his head into the treehouse that Master Kuriko helped them construct. At the corner, he saw his sister huddled there staring into nothingness. Arata quietly sat down beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder tentatively. "Reika?"_

 _"What?" Reika finally shifted her eyes at her brother._

 _"What's wrong? You look like you could burst into tears any second now." Arata spoke in concern._

 _"Because I feel like it." She mumbled._

 _Arata sighed and shifted to be in front of her. "Start from the beginning."_

 _"Some of the girls in my class were mocking me by saying that I'm not good enough to complete the obstacle course today because I'm an orphan. And I failed. Then all of the class started calling me mean names." Reika droned, but she started crying as the words of her classmates floated through her mind. "The worse part is that when I was doing the obstacle course, I could only think of the girls' words and that they might be right."_

 _Arata was furious at this point. He pulled his sister close to him. He took a deep breath to speak to her in a calm manner. "Reika, you know that their words can only affect you if you allow it. The moment you allow their words to take root, you lose your confidence."_

 _"How can I get it back? What if I can't find it?"_

 _Arata ruffled her hair, smiling. "Reika, remember what I always told you? Confidence is not a thing, it is a state of mind. If you let other people tell you that you can't do it, you have to tell yourself that you can do it and believe it. Otherwise, you'll lose your confidence and never succeed."_

 _"Tell myself I can do it and believe I can do it." Reika whispered and nodded. She will regain her confidence with his words. Later on, she learned from Mia that Arata challenged all of her classmates that were bullying her to a fight and won. Their punishment for losing being to apologize to her. She had laughed for days, remembering the bruised, disgruntled faces apologizing to her. But one glare from Arata made them cower._

* * *

 _Present time_

"Tell myself I can do it and believe I can do it." Reika opened her eyes with more determination than before. "I can do it."

Bouncing on the wire again, she continued to flip on the wire, muttering encouragements to herself and trusting her instincts to get her across. Sure enough, she reached the other side in one piece and straightened herself. Looking around, she grinned. "I did it!"

"Great!" The elf called from the other side. "You see a bucket over there?"

Reika looked around and soon found said bucket. "Here!"

"Put it under the rainbow and it'll fill up with its power!"

Reika did just that. And the bucket was soon filled with a swirl of colors. As soon as it was filed up, she removed the bucket and headed back to the wire.

"I can do this." Balancing the bucket under her arm, she crossed the wire. But this time, she did not do flips but merely hopped along the wire since she did not want to spill the rainbow's colors. As soon as she reached the other side, she handed the bucket to the elf. "Now you can restore the color of your village."

"Thank you so much!" The elf bowed in gratitude and rushed back to the village. It didn't take long before light burst out from the direction of the village and color was restored. Trees regaining their brown in trunks and green in leaves; flowers blooming with a multitude of colors; the sky taking on a lovely shade of blue.

"Well done."

Reika tilted her head at the direction of the guardian. "So I pass?"

"Indeed. I confess that I was not sure in the Aqua Sapphire's choice. But you have proven me wrong." With a wave of her hand, the guardian brought Reika back to the Element Stone chamber. "Bring out your weapon."

Reika did as told, summoning her Aqua Tessens. The guardian removed the Aqua Sapphire from the pedestal and extended it towards Reika. It flew right at her main tessen and imbedded itself in its shoulder.

"Use the power of the Aqua Sapphire wisely and remember why it chose you."

Reika inclined her head to acknowledge the guardian's words. The guardian then waved her hand again, opening a portal before her. "Now go."

With a deep breath, she leaped into the portal.

* * *

Back at the Steel Tower, Reika reemerged and found that it was already daytime.

"Gosh, time flies faster this time around." She muttered, comparing her trial's time frame with Arata's. Closing her eyes with a sigh, she realized she had to go back soon before the Grim Lurker strikes again. But, there was something she needed to do first.

"I have to find Aphrodi." She said determinately. Deciding to cheat a little, she created a viewing portal while focusing on Aphrodi. It didn't take long for her to find him, but realizing that he was at the train station made her heart drop.

"He's not running away, is he?" She asked herself, only then realizing how stupid that question was, hence her facepalming. "Of course he is. Especially…" She focused the portal on a TV screen in the station that Aphrodi was also watching, showing Raimon at a soccer stadium against a team called Diamond Dust. Based on the caption of the news, she guessed that they were the aliens that he told her the day before.

"I have to get to him and knock some sense into him." Zooming around, she found a janitor's closet that was empty at the moment. "That'll do." She altered the portal to be a transportation portal and went through it.

* * *

It's over. Aphrodi thought. He just can't bring himself to help Raimon. Even if he did try to join them, they'll only reject him. And if they happen to allow him to join the team, he won't be able to do much to help them. His strength came from the Aqua of Gods, so there's no way his current strength can be of use to them. The aliens were just too strong. So here he is, boarding a train to go back to his hometown.

Alas for that plan, someone tackled him from behind and yanked him off the train just before the doors closed, much to the bewilderment of onlookers and Aphrodi himself.

"What-!?"

"Aphrodi-kun! Don't run away!" Reika cried, trying to drag him out of the station.

"R-Reika-san!? What are you doing?!" Aphrodi managed to force out once they were outside and Reika attempting to drag him to the soccer stadium.

"Not letting you run away and brining to you to the soccer stadium where Raimon is having their match! What else?"

"What!? Why?!" Aphrodi cried as he managed to free himself.

"Because they need you." Reika sighed deeply. She grasped his shoulders, forcing him to turn to the tv screen just outside the station. "Look at them. Are they faring well?"

"No…but,"

"They need you." Reika cut him off, looking at him square in the eye. "I've been thinking about it all night. And I realized that no one can help us regain our self-confidence except ourselves. If you allow the negative words of others and yourself to remain in your mind, you'll never get your confidence back."

Aphrodi could see some sense in her words. But his doubts still stopped him from believing them. Seeing this, Reika smiled gently. "Someone wise once told me this: tell yourself that you can do it and believe it, then you can build up your confidence again."

Aphrodi closed his eyes as he took in her words. "Tell myself I can do it and believe it." Taking a shaky breath, he opened his eyes. "I think you're right."

Reika beamed, releasing her grip on his shoulders. "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

* * *

At the Football Frontier Stadium, Aphrodi and Reika had just arrived and saw that Raimon was being pushed into a corner.

"No turning back now." Aphrodi muttered, clenching his fist. He took a deep breath and turned to Reika. "You'll stay and watch?"

"Of course. Remember, tell yourself that you can do it and believe that you can do it." Reika nodded.

Aphrodi smiled back weakly. And turned his gaze back to the field where the captain of the alien team had made a regular shoot, but it was blocked by the hissatsu of two defenders of Raimon. As a result, the ball was sent flying in their direction at the stands.

"Here's your chance." Reika nudged him.

"Right." Aphrodi nodded and went to get the ball. He kicked it back to the field and jumped down after it, shocking the players of Raimon. After some discussion, he was fitted into Raimon's uniform and replaced one of the injured players. Reika watched nervously from her hiding place. It was obvious that Raimon doesn't trust him save for the goalkeeper captain.

Then the match restarted and Aphrodi was not able to get the ball because none of the players were willing to risk passing the ball to him.

"They're crazy! What reason would Aphrodi have to sabotage the team if he wasn't on your side? There's no way anyone would want the aliens to win and take over the earth." Reika facepalmed at Raimon's actions. But as she observed them closer, she noted that some of them were not distrustful of him, like the blond forward. However, it was not enough for the team to at least trust him to let him have the ball.

The captain of the alien team soon had the ball again and shot at the goal but it was stopped. Aphrodi looked dejected and glanced at her direction. She offered a weak smile but nodded encouragingly, tapping her head to remind him of her words. Aphrodi schooled his face to resolve and nodded back, feeling more determined than ever.

And it paid off. Eventually, the ball went astray due to a miss-pass. A pink haired player barely managed to get the ball but was checked by two aliens. Spotting that Aphrodi was unmarked, he passed the ball to him.

"Yes!" Reika silently cheered. All the waiting has paid off and now, Aphrodi has the ball! The alien team was arrogant to think that no one would trust Aphrodi that they let down their guard towards him. Even when they realized their mistake and tried to mark him, he dribbled past them with Heaven's Time, a hissatsu she remembered Aphrodi telling her about.

Reika giggled at their bewildered looks. The alien captain then stopped him in his tracks, taunting him with the Aqua of Gods. But Aphrodi did not rise to the bait and calmly passed him by passing the ball to the blond forward that trusts him. He got the ball back and used his shoot hissatsu God Knows to make the goal.

"He did it!" Reika grinned, barely restraining herself from whooping out loud. It seems that the team trusts him now. "My work here is done." She slipped away, heading down to the ground floor to wait for half time so that she can say her farewells with Aphrodi.

* * *

As soon as it was half time, Aphrodi slipped away and went down the corridors of the stadium to look for Reika. He soon found her leaning against the wall not too far from the field.

"You did well just now. That goal was awesome." She grinned, pushing herself off the wall.

"I just followed your words and trusted myself." Aphrodi smiled back.

"I think you can handle things from here. I came to say goodbye."

"Oh." Aphrodi blinked and sighed. "I see." He extended his hand. "Thank you for helping me regain my self-confidence and convincing me to help Raimon."

Reika took his hand and shook it, offering a warm smile. "And thank you for giving me something to fight for. It's because of my desire to help you that I was able to accomplish what I came to do here."

Aphrodi raised and eyebrow at that. "You know, I can't tell which parts of your stories are real and which are not."

Reika pretended to think. "Oh? Then what if I told you that I'm from another dimension where I have powers and use them to fight monsters. And, I came here to find something that can help me defeat the stronger monsters."

Aphrodi blinked in slight disbelieve and much to Reika's surprise, he chuckled and nodded. "Alright, I know that you're telling the truth now."

Reika could not believe her ears. "Huh? You know my story sounds absurd. How come you believe it immediately?"

Aphrodi shrugged. "I don't know. I just could tell that you are being truthful this time around."

Reika sighed in relief. "Well, I'm glad I don't need to worry about long explanations and such." A portal then opened behind her, startling Aphrodi but Reika wasn't.

"That's my ride back. Good bye." Reika nodded in farewell.

"Will I see you again?" Aphrodi asked hopefully.

Reika paused and winked at him. "Who knows? Maybe this isn't a final farewell, maybe it is. But just so you know, I'm glad I became friends with you."

"Me too." Aphrodi managed a smile. But it faded when Reika disappeared into the portal and it vanished. He let out a sigh and replaced his down casted expression with a determined one. He had a match to win.


	22. Round three with the Grim Lurker

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Author's note: Happy New Year and welcome to the first update for the year. I know that I've been taking a while, but I've been doing some plotline brainstorming while rewatching Danball Senki W and Danball Senki Wars. It's surprising how much inspiration I can get simply by rewatching, but I'm not sure if I'll be doing any new stories in a while.**

 **Anyway, enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

 _Aviane world, Aquila's side_

Back at the Aviane world, the blue serpentine Aviane watched the swirling portal with pride as her charge stepped out. Reika slowly opened her eyes and grinned at Aquila. "I did it!"

"I knew you could." Aquila told her proudly and lowered herself. "Hop on. I'll bring you back to your world now."

"Thanks." Reika climbed on and patted her neck when she was settled. "And thank you, for believing in me." She could not see it but she felt Aquila smile. "By the way, how did you know about the portals to the other dimensions and where the Aqua Sapphire is?"

Aquila frowned at that but answered. "To tell the truth, all Avianes have known about the portals since the start. But we were forbidden from telling the Valorites and Vigilnites about it."

"Why?" Reika blinked.

"Oracle was the one who decreed it. She was also the one who told me to bring you to the portal that will bring you to the Aqua Sapphire."

Reika's eyes widened at that. "You can hear Oracle?! Arata hasn't been able to reach her ever since the World Sabers takeover!"

"She has her ways." Aquila replied cryptically. Seeing that that was all she was going to get from her Aviane friend, Reika sighed and made herself comfortable on her back.

* * *

 _Real World, Daimen's side_

Dawn was approaching the island and in Master Houjou's house, Daimen and Muraku were beginning to fret. The former was called back to rest there the night before by Master Houjou when it got too late despite his protest to search for Reika longer.

"She didn't come back last night." Daimen sighed when he and Muraku peaked into Reika and Arata's shared room to find that no one was there. And Master Houjou had brought Mia out to explain their powers and bring her to the school to reenroll her there.

Worry flashed in Muraku's eyes as Arata was going to be back any minute and if they can't find her before then, Arata would go berserk at them and at Takeru. And Daimen knew this as well.

"Do you think we can lie ourselves out of this?"

"After the lies I told him last night, no, I don't think so." Muraku shook his head as they moved to the living room. Daimen nodded in agreement.

A blink and Daimen rounded at him in shock. "Wait, what do you mean you lied!?"

"Exactly as I said." Muraku muttered back in annoyance.

"And he bought it?"

"Yes."

"I can't decide which is more shocking, the fact that you can lie or the fact that Arata believed your fibs."

"He was distracted then." Muraku said in his defense.

"Ok, then the fact that you can lie is more shocking."

"Why is that so?" Muraku gritted out.

"Because you don't look like someone who would lie." Daimen shrugged. Muraku internally rolled his eyes. But he knew why Daimen would say that. All his life, he was raised to be calm, poised and honest, if not blunt, which suited his overall personality of being quiet by nature.

"I'm back!"

Daimen and Muraku nearly jumped at Arata's voice and shared panic looks. Before they could escape through the backdoor, Arata arrived at the living room. He raised an eyebrow at them and looked around.

"Hey guys. Where's Reika?"

"Um…"

Arata raised an eyebrow at them. "Well? And don't think about trying to trick me. Just so you know, I didn't fall for that last night, Muraku."

Muraku's mouth dropped slightly in surprise. "What…"

The red-haired teen shrugged. "I never heard you lie before so for you to do so meant that something was seriously wrong, combined with the bad feeling in my gut. But since you were putting effort to keep me from coming back to the island, I was going to let you guys fix whatever happened." He folded his arms across his chest. "So?"

"Ah haha!" Daimen chuckled nervously. "It's a long story…"

"Daimen." Muraku held up his hand to stall him. "I'll tell him."

Daimen's eyebrows shot up. "You sure?"

Muraku nodded and turned back to Arata. "The Grim Lurker from Uluru was not entirely destroyed like we thought because we didn't use the Combo Blast. It attacked us last night but otou-san managed to help us make it retreat for the time being."

Arata's face contorted into horror, remembering how powerful it was and how the only way he managed to defeat it in the end was with the Fire Ruby. But since he was not with his friends, there's no way they could chase it off easily. Dread pooled his stomach as to what happened to Reika.

"What happened to Reika?" He asked desperately.

Daimen and Muraku exchanged uneasy glances but thankfully, they were saved from having to answer that when one of Reika's teleportation portals opened in front of them and she jumped out.

"Reika!"

Reika grinned at them. "I'm back."

"Where were you? I couldn't find you at all last night!" Daimen hugged her in relief. Beside him, Muraku let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, just as thankful as Daimen was that Reika was alright and she's back.

"Sorry about that." Reika hung her head apologetically, but she grinned back, sitting down on one of the empty seats. "It's a long story. But to cut it short, I managed to get this." She whipped out her main tessen, showing off the Aqua Sapphire.

"An Element Stone!" Arata shot up with a jolt. Daimen and Muraku's jaws were dropped wide open as well.

"Yup." Reika nodded, taking out the Aqua Sapphire and fastened it to her necklace. "Aquila, my aviane, brought me to the Aviane world to bring me to another dimension where the Aqua Sapphire was hidden."

"And you took the trial to get it." Arata said with a knowing look.

Reika however only shrugged at that. "I don't know how my trial was compared to yours, but I nearly plummeted down to my death because I had to walk across a tightrope who knows how many meters above the ground."

"Almost the same, faced with death but passed the trial just before I was roasted to death by lava."

"Wow." Daimen blinked. "They like to put you guys through do or die situations just to get the Element Stones."

Arata sighed and shook his head. He reached for his necklace hidden under his shirt and pulled out the chain, showing them his Fantasy logo pendant and the Fire Ruby attached to the chain. "So we have two Element Stones now. If the Grim Lurker comes back, we can stand a chance."

"But we'll need the Combo Blast to defeat it permanently." Muraku reminded him.

"And the Aviane Armor." Daimen added.

"Hopefully Lina-senpai can translate the parchment that will tell us how to do the Combo Blast soon. But it might take a while."

"How was your talk with Seredy?" Reika hesitantly asked. The temperature of the room dropped as Arata grimaced and Muraku's face darkened.

"It was…more informative than I though." Arata slowly said, aware of the tension in the room.

"And?"

Arata hesitated to answer his sister's question. There was no doubt in his mind that Reika will be insecure and furious if he mentioned his mother. And if he told them about Tougou Giichi and what he did to Maddie, Reika and Daimen will react the same way he had. Thankfully or unfortunately, a shiver went down their spines, the same one whenever there were Night Lurkers appearing.

"I guess the Grim Lurker replenished its ooze." Muraku spoke darkly, his hands crackling with dark energy.

"Replenished?" Arata frowned at the term.

"We'll explain later. Muraku and I can take care of the Night Lurkers and keep them off your backs while the both of you use the Element Stones to defeat it." Daimen placed his hand on Muraku's shoulder and teleported to where the Night Lurkers were.

"Open up a portal to the Grim Lurker." Arata told Reika. He summoned his Fire Staff and inserted the Fire Ruby into the top. Reika nodded and did the same for the Aqua Sapphire before opening the portal. As they came out of the portal, they found that the location it brought them to is the beach near the dorms. Daimen and Muraku were already engaged with the Night Lurkers but the Grim Lurker was closing in on them.

"Follow my lead!"

They raised their weapons and sent energy blasts at the Grim Lurker. That did the trick of getting the attention of it. It whipped its head at them and it's eyes became wide.

"Two Element Stones!?"

"Yup." Reika grinned. "And this time, I'm not going to be a weakling who is uncertain of her capabilities. Thanks to trial, I remembered how to regain my confidence!"

The Grim Lurker swore and to the untrained eye, it gathered ooze in its arms and was going to bring them up not at them, but at Daimen and Muraku. Fortunately, Reika's enhanced senses enabled her to perceive this. And so, she made the first move twirling her tessens that were glowing, creating a bubble around the two Valorites and the Grim Lurker.

"What is this?" The Grim Lurker looked around frantically. It shot its ooze at the walls of the bubble, but it merely deflected the ooze into the sand.

"Something to keep you in while we defeat you." Reika's grin became vicious. "I know your dirty tricks. You were planning on attacking Daimen and Muraku or use them as a bargaining chip to prevent us from attacking you."

"You underestimated her." Arata said humorously as he pulled out his sword from the staff. "Ready for round 2?"

"You'll might defeat me today, but I'll just keep on regenerating over and over!" The Grim Lurker shrieked. It shot several ooze orbs in their direction but they flipped to avoid them. Arata pointed his sword at its direction, shooting fire bolts from the tip. The Grim Lurker swiftly dodged them but collided into the walls of the bubble. Instead of bursting through like it hoped, the walls rebounded it back away from it.

Reika grinned at the results of her handiwork. "Now you have nowhere to go except being destroyed once again."

"I won't let you destroy me!" The Grim Lurker roared and prepared its strongest attack. "Super Ooze Canon!"

"Reika! Stop it!" Arata called as he used his flames to slow down the attack. Reika did not reply but a nod was all she gave. She charged up her tessens with the Aqua Sapphire's power and jumped towards the ooze attack, slicing through it.

"No!" The Grim Lurker wailed at the failed attempt of his attack.

"Let's finish this!" Arata and Reika subconsciously tapped into the power of their Element Stones to deliver the final attack. Redish and blueish lights engulfed them. Even Muraku and Daimen could not tear their eyes away from the finishing blow.

* * *

"And that wraps things up." Josephine clapped his hands as Master Houjou signed the last enrollment form. "It's glad to have you back, Mia-chan. Although, I wish the circumstances were different."

Mia only offered a polite, strained smile in reply. Her father rolled his eyes slightly at that and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Come on. Let's get you to class."

"Alright." Mia and Master Houjou bowed slightly at the headmaster and were going to leave when a Metazawa burst into the room.

"Bad news-mo! Bad news-mo!" It waved its arms comically in a frantic manner. "There is some sort of fight going on at the beach near the student's dorms-mo! The monsters are back-mo!"

"What!?" The headmaster clutched his face comically that Mia would have laughed if she didn't guess what the monsters are and who are fighting them.

"Otou-san…"

"Go to your class. I'll handle it." He spoke softly to her. Mia was not happy at that but knowing she was vulnerable in her state, she nodded and slipped away to her class. Master Houjou also slipped out while the headmaster was frantically trying to summon all the Metazawas to investigate the beach. He calmly walked on until he was out of the school. He ducked behind a tree with a frown and used its shadow to get to the beach, hoping that Muraku and the others were safe.

When he stepped out of the shadow, he was greeted with the sight of the bubble dissipating, a large scorched mark in the sand with several other smaller ones outside the area of the bubble, two lights vanishing from Arata and Reika's forms, and Muraku and Daimen standing agape at the former two.

Looking around, the Night Lurkers and possibly the Grim Lurker were destroyed. Master Houjou sighed in relief and clapped his hands to get their attention.

"Master Houjou!"

"Otou-san!"

"Come on." Master Houjou beckoned them away from the beach. "The headmaster was alerted of the fight down here. We got to go before those stupid robots come and investigate."

The teens blinked but managed to comprehend Master Houjou's words and quickly retreated from the beach and back to the house. He turned to Daimen and Muraku. "You two better get to school or you'll be late."

One look at the clock told them that so they rushed to get cleaned up and ran out of the door in less than ten minutes. That left Master Houjou, Arata and Reika as the sole occupants of the house.

"What happened? Tell me everything starting from when Reika came back." Master Houjou asked once they were in the living room.

Reika gave a sheepish laugh as she tugged out her necklace, revealing the Aqua Sapphire. "Long story short, I got pulled into the Aviane World and sent to another dimension by Aquila who was told by Oracle to do so."

"Oracle?!" Arata jerked his head up. "Oracle told her?"

"Yeah. She wouldn't tell me how and when though." Reika shrugged. "When I got back, the Night Lurkers and that Grim Lurker showed up again so we went to fight them."

"And Reika created a bubble to trap the Grim Lurker and prevent it from attacking Daimen and Muraku as they fought the Night Lurkers." Arata continued. Master Houjou gave her an approving nod for her actions, making her duck her head. It was not everyday that Master Houjou gave his approval, let alone compliments.

"So we fought the Grim Lurker, using the Element Stones' power. When we were going to give the finishing blow…I'm not entirely sure what happened, but there was a bright light and I thought I felt Blaze's aura around me."

"The same happened with me with Aquila's aura." Reika frowned.

Master Houjou's eyes became wide slightly and he furrowed his brow in thought. "An incomplete version of the Aviane Armor. That's the only explanation."

Arata and Reika's jaws dropped and exchanged glances. Arata shrugged. "Our time on the island is almost up anyway. I think we can leave at the end of the week and work on perfecting the Aviane Armor at Fantasy while waiting for Lina-senpai to translate the Combo Blast parchment."

Reika slowly nodded, but there was something in her mind that she had to tackle first before they left – Takeru.


	23. Return to Fantasy

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Author's note: I'm so sorry for the long wait. But because of a combination of holidays, demotivation, writers block, anticipation for Avengers Infinity Wars, and studies slowed me down. I won't guarantee that the next update will be soon but for now, I'll be taking my time to do the next chapter.**

* * *

 _The next day_

"Why do you need to go so soon?" Suzunne wailed as she clung on to Reika who sweatdropped. "You were only back for a week then you went to Artemist and came back yesterday!"

"Sorry. But I'm behind schedule in my homework assignments and classes. Jin-san and Yuko-nee will kill me if my grades slide down any further." The auburn girls said apologetically.

Inui sighed and pulled Suzunne off Reika, much to her gratitude. "Come on Suzunne. You know that Reika will visit us again. And ever since the island became connected to the Infinity Net, the both of you have been texting nonstop."

Suzunne pouted and Reika laughed lightly. "You got us." She smiled warmly at her two friends and her gaze drifted to the blond mechanic of the team. She winked and waved at him. He smiled back and returned the wave. Reika giggled and headed up the ship. It may seem strange considering what happened with Sirena and the welcome back party. But Reika and Takeru had sorted things out the day before with a talk.

* * *

 _ The day before_

 _"We need to talk."_

 _Takeru glances up nervously from his homework at Reika's solemn face. He and his team were finishing up the last of their math homework at the Swallow Café when she said that._

 _Suzunne and Inui exchanged glances and immediately gathered up their stuff, leaving the two of them to sort things out._

 _Takeru's mouth gaped at being left behind by his friends. 'Traitors!' He mentally screamed. Until now, he could not understand why everyone was being cool towards him ever since the Artemist party. But a nagging part of him told him that it had to do with Reika and Otohime._

 _Reika slipped into Suzunne's vacated seat and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I've been overreacting to you and Otohime spending time together."_

 _Takeru's mouth dropped open. "Oh…" He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "It's not a huge deal. I know that you don't like Otohime so…"_

 _"It's still no excuse for my behavior." She interrupted firmly. She sighed, staring at her hands on the table. "It's just, whenever you get to close to her, I get jealous."_

 _Takeru blinked once…twice…and burst out laughing. Reika felt her face turning pink, wondering what set him off._

 _"Sorry," Takeru managed to force his laughter down to chuckles. "I never pegged you to be the jealous type. You always acted secure in yourself back then."_

 _Reika blushed and adverted her gaze. "That's just the front I put up. I'm not that secure most of the time. And going back to my apology, I know that I have no right to dictate who you want to hang out with or be together with. So, I had no right to be upset if you want to hang out with Otohime or date her."_

 _"Woah, woah, wait a minute!" Takeru held up his hands with a massive blush flushing his cheeks. "What makes you think I'm dating her?!"_

 _Reika frowned in confusion. "You are close to her recently that you gave her Sirena and there was last night when she acted like she wanted to kiss you and you blushed."_

 _Takeru's blush darkened at that. He leaned forward and whispered. "Promise you won't laugh?"_

 _Reika gave him a quizzical look but nodded at him to continue. Glancing around, Takeru whispered. "The truth is, I'm shy of girls who act girly."_

 _Disbelieve was the word to describe what Reika was feeling. But mirth came along and she was reduced into a fit of giggles, pressing her hand over her mouth to stop the snorts of laughter from surfacing._

 _"You promised you won't laugh!"_

 _Reika only shook her head whist shoveling her laughter down. "S-sorry! Why 'girly' girls though?"_

 _"I blame my sister on that one." Takeru groaned, burying his face in his hands. "Remember Makoto from Artemist? He's her childhood rival and the one who influenced her to become a tomboy. Nee-san was initially like any other girl, wearing skirts, hate getting dirty, etc. But one day, Makoto-nii teased her for being a girly girl and she decided to change and become a tomboy. Ever since then, I get very shy around girls who are very…'girly'."_

 _Reika chuckled at that. "I see. That explains some things. But what about Suzunne and me? How can you stand to be around us?"_

 _"She's a tomboy." Takeru pointed out. "And you…you're not afraid to get your hands dirty."_

 _"What's that supposed to mean?" Reika raised a challenging eyebrow._

 _"You're not like most girls." Takeru said carefully, knowing very well that one wrong word would mean setting Arata off against him again. "I mean, you like to dress nice and be pretty like most girls, but not a lot of them, especially Otohime, can do what you do."_

 _"Such as?"_

 _"You went to a martial arts school so you can kick butt, you're a great dancer who managed to incorporate that into your LBX fighting skills, and you're a nice person above all else." Takeru ticked off his fingers._

 _Reika had to fight off the blush that was threatening to form. Instead, she tossed her head and chuckled. "Glad to know you think so highly of me. Don't tell Arata that though. He thinks my ego cannot be inflated any further."_

 _"Don't worry, your secret's safe with me." Takeru laughed._

* * *

With all the drama behind them, they are now closer friends than ever. And Reika felt that she can begin her training on the Aviane Armor with a clearer mind now that she has her confidence back. Muraku and Daimen promised to keep an eye on Mia and make sure that her memories of her powers do not surface until she's ready.

On Arata's side of the farewells, it is not as warm and friendly as it was with Reika's. While Haruki, Hikaru and Sakuya understood that Arata could not stay for long and had to go back eventually, he and Yuno were not on speaking terms since last night. When he had announced that he was leaving just when he got back to the island, Yuno got upset because they didn't get to spend any time together.

Reika really sympathized her brother and his long-distance relationship with Yuno. Arata tries to visit the island when he can, but his duty to the school and everyone's safety made it hard especially since he was made commander over the whole student army to coordinate attacks against the Night Lurkers whenever they surfaced. In what spare time he had, he trained to improve his martial arts and powers.

Unfortunately, Arata could not share this bit of information with Yuno or about the Element Stones. So he had to content himself with a long distance relationship and putting his duties over Yuno.

"Yuno won't be mad at you forever." Reika comforted him once they boarded the boat. "I know that it is hard to keep secrets from her, but I'm sure that she understands that you care for her a lot."

Arata sighed and leaned against the railing. "I know. But she has ever right to be mad at me." He closed his eyes as the wind breezed against his face. "I can't help it. I put my duty as commander ahead of her because I want to keep everyone, including her, safe."

Reika placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled comfortingly. "And you will. I'm sure that Yuno will one day understand that you're doing everything to keep her safe."

Not for the first time, Arata was grateful to have his sister around. She is the constant anchor in his life. He couldn't imagin what his life would be like if he didn't have her. He swung his arm over her shoulder and grinned.

"Thanks for the words of encouragement, sis."

* * *

 _At Fantasy_

The one word that Kalina would use to describe translating the mysterious parchment is 'challenging'. The ancient language of the parchment was her father's expertise, not hers despite learning it. By her estimation though, she could finish translating it by that evening.

"How's the progress of translating?" Yuko asked when she came by with a mug of coffee for her.

"Slow going." Kalina sighed as she pushed her hair away from her face. "This is a lot harder than I realized but what I've been able to translate is that there should at least be two people for the Combo Blast and they must have an Element Stone and the Aviane Armor."

Yuko's face darkened at that. "Then that's going to be a problem as none of us know how to get the Aviane Armor. And Arata is the only one who has an Element Stone. We need to get started on obtaining the others."

"But Arata found his by accident." Kalina frowned having heard about the incident from Yuko and Arata himself. "And we have no idea where the other Element Stones are located."

"I'm going to scan Arata's Element Stone and build something that can help us find them. Think you can help me with that project?"

"I'd love to but I have to go back after I translate this." Kalina flashed a rueful smile. "I need to catch up on my studies since Artemist is over."

"You sure? I was hoping that we could exchange ideas over it. I saw your LBX and I'm impressed that you managed to miniaturize the Element Core into a Core Box for LBX."

"That was dad's original design. He had ideas for it to be in an LBX initially, but it didn't work out." She pulled out Dragon and stared at the colorful core with a wistful look. "I knew the core was designed for Drago when I found its blueprints. Dad based off many of his weapons off Drago, the only LBX he ever made."

"I see." Yuko extended her hand and Kalina placed her LBX in her senior's hands so that she can examine it. "So besides the core, what other projects are you working on?"

"Just several minor projects for my course. Other than that, I've been thinking of ways to customize my dad's weapons designs for LBX."

Yuko's burrow furrowed at that as she returned the LBX. "Are you sure you want to continue on that path? Your father never enjoyed making weapons you know."

"I know. But I don't know what else I should do. I feel like I don't have any other options other than making LBX and weapons for them." Kalina sighed in frustration.

All of the sudden, Yuko slammed her hands on the table, startling the red head. "Kalina Black, if you continue to limit yourself like this, you'll never climb up to the top!" She took a deep breath and stared at her former junior in the eye. "I understand that you want to top Yamano Ban in those areas, but that's not all life is about. Stop letting your bitter feelings dictate your life. Trust me, you'll regret it in the end."

Kalina slowly nodded to show that she understood her senior's words. Yuko knew that she understood them and needed time to let it sink in. So she simply left the room and allowed Kalina to continue her translation progress.

'I wonder if Kalina realizes the path she's going down." Yuko mused with a frown as she went back to her office. 'I want to help her but she needs to learn this important lesson herself.'

A portal suddenly appeared in her office but not being surprised by it, she smiled instead. "They're back."

Sure enough, Reika and Arata came through the portal with wide grins. But what caught her attention and surprise was the blue gem dangling from Reika's necklace.

"Yuko-nee! You won't believe what happened at Kamui Island!" Reika bounced up to her.

"I can guess." Yuko said drily as she hugged her and Arata. "Where did you get that Element Stone from?"

"It was during the second fight against the Grim Lurker that was revived from Uluru because we didn't use the Combo Blast. I got thrown into the ocean." Reika's smile dropped and so did Yuko's. But she quickly reassured the older girl, "But Aquila saved me by pulling me into the Aviane Dimension and brought me to the place where the Element Stone is."

Yuko only shook her head. "I'm glad that you're alright. And the Grim Lurker?"

"Destroyed but it can be reformed any time now." Arata said grimly. "But during our third fight against it, something happened. We somehow did an incomplete version of the Aviane Armor to defeat it."

Yuko's eyes widened and she narrowed them. "I see. Kalina is still translating the Combo Blast parchment. You two need to figure out how to master the Aviane Armor so that when she's done, you can start on the Combo Blast."

"Right." They nodded and left, presumably to start training on the Aviane Armor.

"In the meantime," Yuko slid back into her seat. "I'm calling in the reinforcements."

* * *

 **So that's it. And here is a deleted** **scene** **which I initially wanted to put as the opening for this chapter but did not have any idea on how to continue from there. But I didn't want scrap it so I'm putting it here instead.**

 **Deleted Scene**

"Welcome back Mia!" The students of class 5-5 chorused as Mia stepped in the class. Some of them had even threw streamers in the air. Mia jumped in shock at the greeting and blinked warily at her classmates who only grinned at her. "What's all this?"

"Muraku told us that you will be coming back today so we wanted to welcome you back." Yuno explained. She guided the slightly startled girl to her seat. "We asked Instructor Saruta for permission to postpone homeroom and he let us off for the rest of the period."

"But, Muraku and Daimen are running late." Vanessa pursed her lips, glancing out of the window from her perch, wondering if she could see her team captain and the second's arriving. Mia bit her lip, knowing why they were not at school yet but her father made it clear that she cannot tell anyone about the situation.

Mikhail sighed beside the purple haired girl. "He did promise to try and make it when he planned it before Artemist."

"He was planning this that long?" Mia sounded surprise.

"Yeah. We wanted to do this when you first came back after being discharged from the hospital." Haruki explained. "But since you were…jumpy around us, we agreed that it would be best to give you some time to adjust being around us."

"Oh…" Mia only gave a strained smile. "Thanks for that. And Muraku and Daimen…I don't mind them running late."

"Really?" Vanessa raised an eyebrow at her. "But Muraku promised to be here."

"I know why he is late that's why." Mia said smoothly. But shook her head at the questioning looks of her classmates. "Family problems. Not my place to say it."

"Oh. Ok." They shrugged uncomfortably and left it. Even though Mia and Muraku never actually talk about their family problems, they had pieced together most of the information from various indications to know that the Houjou's, and to some extent the Kenbishi's, have a lot of internal conflicts. But little did they know that this family problem was more related to something more supernatural that petty conflicts.

"So will you be joining us during Battle Time?" Sakuya changed the subject. "I have to get you a new LBX…"

"I won't be joining you guys." Mia cut him off, making them look at her in surprise.

"You won't?" Haruki blinked.

"Doctors don't want me to go for Battle Time yet." Mia explained. "I still blackout and have bad headaches every once in a while, and my muscles still ache if I strain them too much."

"I see." Sakuya, Hikaru and Haruki exchanged frowns, knowing how important it was to constantly be alert during Battle Time and have stamina to operate the control pod.

"Sorry we're late!" Daimen yelled as he slammed open the door, panting heavily. Behind him, Muraku was also panting but not as much as the former.

"It's fine." Mia spoke up before Vanessa could. "I'm just glad that you're here now. Is everything resolved?"

"Yes." Muraku nodded, heading to his seat to put down his bag. Being her twin, he easily guessed what excuse she came up for their tardiness. "Thankfully nothing major happened."

"I can't believe you planned all this for me." Mia spoke softly to him, sounding slightly dazed by all the attention she had gotten.

"You're not comfortable with the attention?"

"Yes, but better I do this now than later." She shrugged. "By the way, is Reika fine?"

"Yeah. She came back this morning." Muraku replied softly, eyes darting around in case anyone overheard.

"Thank goodness." Mia breath out in relief. "Is she alright?"

"Yeah." Muraku's lips twitched as he remembered Reika's flashy return and thankfully, her confidence along as well.

"Then the monsters…"

"Are gone." He reassured her, patting her shoulder. "You don't need to worry too much for us. We can handle ourselves."

Mia raised an eyebrow doubtfully. She crossed her arms and said threateningly. "I better not hear otherwise." Yet, the smile on her face gave away that she was not serious. However, when someone else tried to talk to her, she instantly clamped up and slammed up her walls.

Muraku's eyes widen slightly at the brief return of her normal personality. It was only for a short moment but it comforted him that his sister can and will heal from her ordeal.


	24. Return of a Friend

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Danball Senki series.**

 **Author's note:Emotional scenes and dealings are not my forte. I apologize in advance if they seem unrealistic or forced.**

* * *

Life at Fantasy is never boring. The cycle of academic, power controlling and martial arts classes may seem repetitive, but there will always be something happening that will stir the excitement of the students. The latest excitement being surprisingly not the news of the Grim Lurker but the return of a certain alumni all the way from America.

Apparently Yuko and Master Houjou had enough sense not to cause a school wide panic by hiding the existence of the Grim Lurkers for the time being. And with Yuko calling in reinforcements, Nick Skyfly is back to help. By coincidence, he was in Japan when he got the call from Yuko hence being able to get to the school in the same day. After graduating, he joined the military for a few months, becoming more muscular than six months ago and his wavy hair was cut into a buzz cut. Yet, he caught a few girls swooning at him and rolled his eyes, imagining Maya's reaction if she were with him. Unfortunately, his girlfriend was preoccupied with a job interview back at America or she would have joined him. He chuckled lightly as he entered the school compound, wondering the reaction of his friends when they find out what the job interview is about.

"Nick!? What are you doing here?" Wataru had spotted him and practically bounced over to him.

"Hey there." Nick ruffled his junior's hair fondly. "Kuriko-sensei called. And nice to see you again."

Wataru beamed as they walked up the many stairs to the head teacher's office, oblivious to the awes and whispers of the students at the sight of two of the students who played a part in retrieving the Gem of Wishes. He caught Nick up with some of the events that happened ever since he and Maya graduated.

"…And Muraku, Arata and Reika won Artemist and Daimen's team is the runner up. But I think you know about that. And the Grim Lurkers showed up shortly after that and Arata got an Element Stone. Then the Grim Lurker revived and attacked Kamui Island this time and Reika got an Element Stone and she and Arata managed to do an incomplete Aviane Armor which is necessary for the Combo Blast that can permanently defeat the Grim Lurker. But Kalina-senpai is working on translating a parchment that can tell us how to use the Combo Blast so Arata and Reika are trying to master the Aviane Armor now."

Nick nodded along with Wataru's rambling and raising an eyebrow at certain points, especially at the end. "Wow, things have been very intense. I'm glad that I'm back here to help."

"Me too." They came to a stop at Yuko's office and went in. Atsuya was also in there with Yuko at the bookshelves while Yuko was at her desk.

"Nick!" Yuko rose from her seat with a smile and Atsuya grinned and waved from where he was. "I'm glad you came quickly. Where's Maya?"

"Oh, she's…"

He was interrupted by the door opening again but this time Reika and Arata came in, having taken a break and decided to report their progress to Yuko. Their mouths turned up as they grinned at their graduated senior.

"Nick!"

Nick raised his hand in a lazy salute. "Hey guys. Haven't seen you two since graduation."

"What brings you back here? Not that we're not glad to see you." Reika hastily added. "And where's that gank?"

Nick chuckled at her wording of the question. "I'm afraid she's staying back at LA for an important job interview."

"Huh?" Reika scrunched up her nose. "What job interview would take precedence over the Grim Lurkers?"

"A recording contract one."

Instantly, everyone was gaping at him. Arata shook his head and smiled wryly. "I guess that once in a lifetime opportunity is enough for her to not come over. But I'm guessing that that's not the only reason."

"Sharp as ever." Nick sighed fondly at his junior and leader. "Well, Maya kind of made me promise not to tell you guys her other reason but it has something to do with Mia."

"Ah." Arata nodded in understanding. He then turned to Yuko, addressing her, "So, Yuko-nee, what's the plan now?"

Yuko clapped her hands together with a breath. "Right." She gazed at Arata as though asking permission for something which he hesitantly nodded. Yuko returned the nod and adverted her gaze to the group. "For the past months, I have been following a lead to the party who stole the Gem of Wishes from Fantasy and is possibly after the Element Stones now. And I believe that he is the one who sent the rouge LBX to Uluru to try and take the Fire Ruby from you while you were distracted by the Night Lurkers and Grim Lurker."

"What?!" Reika blinked owlishly. "Wait, does this mean you know who is this party?"

Yuko nodded gravely. "Yes. It is Tougou Giichi."

There was silence as everyone processed the bomb Yuko dropped on them. Slowly Atsuya nodded. "It makes sense now. He was otou-san's best student."

"But how do you know that it is really him?" Reika asked worriedly, casting concerned looks at Arata. "Wait…You mean he's a student from Fantasy!? And Master Kuriko's student!?"

"Otou-san's journals. He stated himself that Tougou Giichi took it." Yuko coughed. "And yes, he's a Valorite with the element of mind."

"And Seredy confirmed that he is the one who is behind the rouge LBX." Arata added gravely. Reika's face fell, knowing the conflict that he had inside. Rikuya was one of the few people he saw as a friend and his father is now their enemy. She frowned, observing Arata closely. Something was a bit off with him. She didn't notice it back at Kamui due to the whirlwind of action, but now that they are discussing about the former Prime Minister, Arata was emitting a dark aura that was almost not noticeable if not for the fact that she knew him well.

"So for now, the plan is this." Reika immediately reverted her attention back to Yuko who now had her hands clasped behind her back. "Arata, Reika, you two stay here and continue training to master the Aviane Armor. And then the Combo Blast. The rest of us will stay on Tougou Giichi's trail and find a way to stop him before he can hurt anyone."

"Right." Reika and Arata nodded and headed out, presumably to continue their training. Everyone else crowded around Yuko's desk. The owner of the office reached into her desk drawer and took out a familiar book to some of them.

"I'm sure that most of you know what book this is but for Wataru's benefit, this is the Book of Secrets." She passed the book to the intrigued boy who flipped it open. His face became uncharacteristically serious when he realized that while it was in the language of the Avianes, he could not understand it.

"Wait for it." Atsuya shared grins with Nick. Lo and behold, Wataru yelped and nearly dropped the book when the words shifted. His mouth moved open and close like a goldfish.

"That is the secret of the Book of Secrets." Yuko explained with a mirthful smile. "The language is the ancient language of the Avianes but you could say that every element has a 'dialect' which the book will shift to adapt to their understanding. So far, we've already tested it out on almost all of the elements except for shadow, light and mind. Arata was the one of found out about this."

Wataru blinked and looked up. "Wait, if Arata already read through the book, why didn't he read the mind translation of the book?"

"You picked up on that fast." Nick ruffled his hair fondly. "As it turns out, we someone whose dominant element is mind to do that. Arata can't because his dominant element is fire."

"So what does it say?" Yuko asked, leaning forward slightly.

"Um, it says that there is something call the Energy Compass. It can point the user in the right direction of the Element Stones." Wataru read out.

"Really?" Yuko raised her eyebrows and folded her hands together in thought. "If we find the Energy Compass first, we will have an edge over Tougou Giichi and the Grim Lurkers."

"But how are we going to find it?" Atsuya pointed out with a frown.

"It doesn't exactly say where. But it gives some clues of where it is." Clearing his throat, Wataru read out, "At the point of the brightest sunsets, find the shadow of the cat. It will point you to the direction of the blue star. Under the blue light, you will find the Element Compass."

"Huh?" Nick sweatdropped. "That doesn't sound very helpful?"

"It's what it says." Wataru shrugged, closing the book.

"Brightest sunsets…" Atsuya tapped his chin in thought. "I know I've heard of it before…Ah! It's-!"

"The Sky Realm!" Yuko unintentionally cut her brother off. Atsuya threw her a mildly annoyed look but she either ignored it or did not notice it. Nick however did and shot him a curious look. Atsuya scowled and shook his head, turning his attention to his sister as she explained what he was about to say.

"The Sky Realm is a section of the Aviane Dimension that is highly secluded from the element sections. Because of its location, the sun sets there are said to be the brightest of all the realms."

"I see!" Wataru exclaimed, jumping out of his seat. "So what are we waiting for? Let's go and get that compass!"

"Wait just a minute." Yuko immediately grabbed Wataru back with her telekinesis. "I'm not done yet. Because of the Sky Realm's location, we require winged Avianes to be able to get there."

"Oh." Nick rubbed the back of his head. "Then we have a problem there. None of our Avianes are winged so we can't go there."

"Blaze and Aquila are training with Arata and Reika to master the Aviane Armor so they're out too." Atsuya ticked off his fingers. "Frost only responds to Mia and we obviously can't get her to make Frost bring us there."

"That leaves Sora, Daimen's Aviane. I'll call up Master Houjou and see if he can let us borrow Yin." Yuko surveyed everyone in the room and sharpened her gaze. "Get ready everyone. We leave tomorrow to the Aviane Dimension. We have to get to the Energy Compass so that we can get to the Element Stones before Tougou Giichi does."

* * *

Meanwhile, in the practice room that is part of the Aviane Dimension, Arata and Reika were diligently practicing perfecting the Aviane Armor. But despite the numerous tries, they could not replicate what they did back at Kamui Island against the Grim Lurker. Every time they tried to call on the Aviane Armor, it would shatter before it can completely form. Their Avianes did not know how to summon the Aviane Armor either so they can't help much.

"Man, I don't get it why can't we at least do an incomplete version of the Aviane Armor." Reika sighed tiredly when they took a break. Beside her, Arata did not reply but was sipping his water with a faraway look in his eyes.

Reika noticed this and frowned. "Arata?" She poked him with her elbow to get his attention.

Arata jumped with a start at the contact. "What?!"

Reika's frown deepened at him. "What's wrong? You've been out of it for the whole practice ever since the meeting at Yuko-nee's office."

"It's nothing." Arata sighed, tilting his head back.

"If you say so." Reika eyed him skeptically but chose not to push the issue. She knew he will tell her when he wants to. But sometimes, it was usually too late. Reika frowned at that thought. More often than not, Arata will internalize all his emotions when a problem is bothering him and not open up about it at all. And when his emotions reach the tipping point, his telepathic and fire powers will go haywire. Reika shuddered as she remembered all the times Arata's powers got out of control.

Many people will be surprised to learn that it is not Mia who easily lose control over her powers, but Arata since Mia is more prone to lose her temper and Arata tends to act cool. Master Kuriko had theorized that it is because of Arata's habit of bottling up everything which destroys his focus on his control. Mia on the other hand had a lot of practice putting enough focus on her control so as to not accidentally freeze up the vicinity every time she throws a temper tantrum.

Sighing, Reika took a ribbon out from her bag and went over to Aquila who was resting at the base of one of the pillars. "Aquila, wanna practice a bit with me?"

Aquila lifted its head and nodded at her. _"Sure thing."_

From his spot, Arata watched his sister practice twirling her ribbon around with Aquila following her movements, creating a beautiful dance of synchronization and symphony. Arata smile at the dance, not taking his gaze off of it even when Blaze flew down and settled by his side.

 _"You should not make her worry. She is very concern of you, just as I am."_

"I know and I'm sorry. But this is my burden to carry. I cannot trouble anyone with them."

 _"You know that you will trouble no one if you chose to share your burdens. The longer you hold everything inside, the more destructive those emotions will become."_ Blaze warned him.

"Because of my empathy?"

 _"It will happen to everyone who keeps unhealthy thoughts in general, not just you."_ Blaze said. He tilted his head in thought with a frown. _"I believe your reluctance to open up will continue to hinder with our synchronization and capability to perform the Aviane Armor."_

Without looking at Arata's shocked look, Blaze took off and settled back at his original position. Unbeknown to them, Reika and Aquila had paused in their dance and sensed Blaze's disappointment at Arata.

"Wonder what happened with them?" Reika frowned, tapping her ribbon in her palm.

 _"I am not sure."_ Aquila shook its head _. "But Blaze is upset and concerned about something regarding Arata. I believe he tried to get Arata to open up about his problems but failed."_

Reika sighed, wrapping the ribbon around her hand to keep it. "I am not surprise. But, I trust Arata to tell me what happened during his meeting with Seredy eventually."

 _"You think that that meeting has something to do with what he's going through now?"_

"I'm _sure_ of it." Reika corrected her friend. She sighed again and gave Aquila a grim smile. "Let's try the Aviane Armor again."

Aquila nodded and got into position. Reika closed her eyes and allowed herself to feel Aquila's energy. But something was different. Their synchrony was stronger than before. And the feeling was almost similar with what she felt during the first time she used the incomplete Aviane Armor. In that second, she felt Aquila's soothing, calming presence envelope her.

But just as that feeling came, it left. Reika's eyes shot open and gasped heavily as Aquila's presence disappeared. But a quick glance told her that Aquila was in the same position it was before, hunched over and breathing heavily as well.

Reika smiled and gave her Aviane friend a thumbs up to show that she was ok. The next thing she knew, Arata had grabbed her by the shoulders with a dumbfound look.

"You nearly did it." He whispered and broke into a grin. "You nearly got the Aviane Armor!"

"I know." Reika grinned back, grasping his arm. She became thoughtful and looked down at her ribbon and then at Aquila. "We tried it out right after doing our ribbon dance…"

"Your synchronization was at its peak then." Arata snapped his fingers. "It's official. Synchronization with our Avianes is the key to the Aviane Armor."

 _"Oh really?"_ Blaze deadpanned as he swooped down.

Arata laughed nervously as he gestured back at him. "Or as Blaze suggested."

 _"This changes a lot of things."_ Aquila mused, disregarding Arata's earlier statement. She gave Arata a pointed look. _"If what you say is true, I believe you might find it more difficult than Reika…no, than all of your friends to complete the Aviane Armor."_

"What…?" Reika whispered faintly, shifting her gaze between Arata and the two Avianes. Right now, the former was glaring at the latter two but sighed in defeat. He shifted his attention back to Reika.

"Never mind. Focus on completing the Aviane Armor. If they don't think I can do it, at least you should."

Arata's words set off alarms in Reika's mind. Before she could confront him however, Arata grabbed his back and exited the realm through the portal. With a frustrated cry, Reika casted a dark glare at Blaze and Aquila. "Would someone tell me what is going on? What do you mean Arata will never accomplish the Aviane Armor!?"

"I only speak the truth. Arata's inner conflict and torment will only continue to hinder with his and Blaze's connection until he learns to let them go." Aquila explained evenly.

Reika sighed but knew that Aquila was right. It seems that she will have to step in and make Arata deal with his troubles whether he wants to or not. It was not only his sanity that was on the line but the lives of countless Valorites and Vigilnites. She had no doubt that she can and will master the Aviane Armor, but in the event when she could not, someone else must use it to use the Combo Blast to defeat the Grim Lurkers.

Worriedly, Reika packed up her things and bid the Avianes goodbye as she left the realm as well, deciding to end Aviane Armor for the day since Arata already left and she no longer has the energy to attempt another try with Aquila after their near succeeding attempt. As she headed back to her room, she wondered what Seredy could have said that shaken Arata this badly. Vaguely, she had an inkling that it was something extremely personal and possibly something to do with Maddie.

Not looking where she was going, she accidentally bumped into Nick as he was coming around the corner. Her bag fell out of her grasp and the contents were dumped out on the floor.

"Sorry about that." Reika quickly apologized and crouched down to pick up her things.

"It's fine." Nick flashed a smile and bent down to help her. When they had gotten everything back into the bag, Nick looked closely at the younger girl. "Are you alright? Weren't you practicing the Aviane Armor with Arata?"

"I used up all my energy on a near successful attempt." Reika shrugged tiredly. "And Arata left earlier than I did."

"Hm." Nick hummed and walked with her. "Is there anything bothering you? I can tell that you are worried about Arata."

Reika chuckled and shook her head. "Just Arata being his stubborn self." She halted in her steps and lowered her head. "But I'm worried about him. It's worse than usual."

"That bad?" Nick smiled sympathetically, knowing what she is referring to.

"It wasn't like this until he went to see Seredy." Reika's face darkened, clenching her fist. "He did something to mess with Arata's mind."

Nick's face darkened as well. "I see." His face cleared up and gave her a comforting smile. "How about this? I'll go and talk to him before I leave with the others to the Aviane Dimension. See if I can get him to loosen up. Then you can do the rest."

Reika visibly brightened at that. "Really? Thanks so much!"


End file.
